Delivering rural power in Alaska: off the Railbelt, on the road system.

• Author: West, Gail
• Position: ENERGY

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With the cost of diesel driving energy prices to dizzying heights and placing rural communities in a more and more untenable position, many are investigating alternative sources of power.

Unlike the Lower 48, Alaska's power transmission infrastructure is still in the pioneering stages. From Fairbanks to Seward and Homer and in much of Southeast Alaska, communities are connected to "the grid" and getting their power from larger member cooperatives and government entities. In Bush Alaska, villages rely primarily on diesel and can take advantage of the state's power-cost-equalization program to help offset sky-high kilowatt-hour charges. There are a few communities, however, in Interior and Southcentral Alaska on the road system but off the Railbelt's grid that are continuing to rely--in large part--on diesel generation and are looking for viable alternatives.

Alaska Power and Telephone

Hydro is an obvious choice for some of these communities, but others, such as Tok, aren't situated close enough to a water body. Alaska Power and Telephone (AP&T), the company which provides power for Tok and surrounding communities, has been studying the use of woody biomass.

"Right now, Tok is 100 percent diesel," says Greg Mickelson, vice president. "Tetlin, Tanacross, and Dot Lake are connected by power line; then on south toward Glennallen, Slana, Chistochina, and Mentasta communities are connected from a central generation point in Slana. We have stand-alone generation in Eagle, in Bettles, and in Alakaket. Alakaket also serves Alatna across the river. They're all diesel."

AP&T has looked at hydro, wind, and biomass options very hard over the past five years, Mickelson adds. Woody biomass seems to be the best of the options.

Benjamin Beste, a mechanical engineer with AP&T, says the company received funding from the Alaska Energy Authority last year for a feasibility study and results indicated biomass was viable. "Now," he adds, "we're expanding that study to look at biomass as a source of heat for the community and for other communities."

Beste adds that AP&T will have a long-term agreement with the State of Alaska to harvest the timber that would be chipped and burned to provide heat. A byproduct of the heat generation, he says, would be electricity, so the biomass fuels both.

"It's an immediate resource," Beste says, "and it's local." Even better is that much of the biomass harvested in the first years of operation would come from timber removed by the Department of Forestry in their Wildfire Protection Program as they clear trees to protect populated areas, transmission lines, and roadways. Another local benefit will be that the forestry and harvesting operations will...