Alternative power to benefit Copper Valley: CVEA files permit to move forward with fuel-saving Allison Lake Hydroelectric Project.

• Author: Barbour, Tracy
• Position: ALTERNATIVE ENERGY

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The Copper Valley Electric Association Inc. (CVEA) has made a step forward to explore an alternative solution that would provide its members with more energy efficiency and stable fuel costs. CVEA recently filed an application for a preliminary permit with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to undertake the Allison Lake Hydroelectric Project.

The preliminary permit, once secured from FERC, will give CVEA three years to study the power potential of Allison Lake and to develop information necessary to support a license application, according to CVEA CEO Robert Wilkinson. CVEA will be required to complete study plans in consultation with agencies, tribes and other interested parties. Areas of study can run the gamut. They could include information about the general locale, geology, soils, fisheries, habitat, wildlife, water use and quantity, and various resources. The project also will be engineered and designed during the three-year study.

At the end of the three years, CVEA will file a license application with FERC to begin development--which could take up to eight years to complete. FERC has a very detailed review process, but Wilkinson said he fully expects the project to receive the commission's stamp of approval. "If we do our job properly, we expect FERC will issue a license," Wilkinson said.

AN IMPORTANT PROJECT FOR CVEA

The Allison Lake hydroelectric project is not a huge undertaking for CVEA. But it is a crucial one, said Wilkinson, because it will significantly decrease the fuel CVEA burns to generate electricity. CVEA sells 76,000-megawatt hours of energy per year or 76 million-kilowatt hours. The average person in the Railbelt uses about 700-kilowatt hours per month. Allison Lake will produce 20 million to 24 million-kilowatt hours a year.

"This displaces kilowatt hours currently generated with fuel," he said.

Currently in a typical year, Wilkinson said, CVEA gets about 60 percent of its energy from clean hydro electricity, 25 percent from cogeneration (combined heat and power) and 15 percent from diesel generation. "When Allison Lake comes on line, it will be about 80 percent (from hydro)," he said.

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CVEA both produces and distributes electrical energy through four power plants. One of them is the successful Solomon Gulch Hydro Project, which cranks out about 50 million kilowatt hours annually. The 12-megawatt facility, which serves Valdez and Glennallen, is owned by The...