Electrifying the Railbelt: Planning for a transco moves forward.

AuthorStricker, Julie
PositionENERGY

When a Fairbanks resident flips on a light, the electricity that powers it may have been generated 600 miles away at the Bradley Lake Hydroelectric facility near Homer. Or it may have come from a natural gas facility near Anchorage, or one of Golden Valley Electric Association's (GVEA) coal-fired plants in Healy.

Most of Alaska's population lives along the Railbelt, which is served by six utilities. Although they are all linked, they operate individually. But electricity demand is expected to rise in coming years and long-term plans are needed, says Chris Rose, executive director of the Renewable Energy Alaska Project.

"it's a dynamic situation," Rose says. "Electric vehicles could really change the demand on the electric grid in the Railbelt. It's gonna happen. The electric system has to be ready for it. We need to have a regional electricity and generation plan, which we do not have. All six utilities do their planning individually, which is very inefficient and suboptimal. We have a regional grid, one that is physically connected, but we don't operate it as a regional grid. We don't plan for it on a regional basis.

"And it's a big problem."

It's a problem that state legislators and regulators have been working on for a number of years, Rose says. A solution may be in sight.

Six different utilities own and operate the generating facilities and transmission lines in the Railbelt: GVEA, Matanuska Electric Association (MEA), Chugach Electric Association, Municipal Light & Power, Homer Electric Association, and the City of Seward. Several attempts have been made over the years to consolidate and streamline the utilities, with little success. It's not a matter of pooling resources, it's more about making sure supply and demand for electricity across the grid is balanced--with costs and risks divided equitably--and appropriate access given to independent power producers.

Right now, with each utility overseeing its own portion of the grid, getting power from Bradley Lake to Fairbanks, for instance, involves "rate pancaking." Those stacked transmission tariffs could make it less feasible for independent power producers to develop lower-cost renewable energy solutions. And, since each utility puts its customers first, long-term planning is difficult because there is little incentive for one utility to invest in a project that doesn't directly benefit its customers.

In 2015, the Regulatory Commission of Alaska (RCA) asked the Railbelt utilities to work together to streamline electrical service. One option is to form a single transmission company, or...

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