Interior natural gas conversion an empty pipe dream for now: state funded and AIDEA financed Interior Energy Project in holding pattern for hook-ups.

• Author: Stricker, Julie
• Position: SPECIAL SECTION: Energy & Power

Residents in parts of Fairbanks and North Pole will have to wait a bit longer to get hooked up to natural gas.

In 2015, more than seventy-three miles of pipe were installed in North Pole, the first of three anticipated phases of construction to expand natural gas infrastructure in a wide swath around Fairbanks, north to Fox and south to Salcha.

The construction is part of the Interior Energy Project (IEP), created by the Alaska Legislature in 2013 to bring clean, low-cost energy to communities in Alaska's Interior. It is financed by AIDEA (Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority) and overseen by a handful of state agencies.

That pipe will remain empty for now, as the Fairbanks North Star Borough and state of Alaska work to answer questions about the project: the source and cost of the gas, how to get it to Fairbanks, and where to store it, as well as what options homeowners will have to tap into it and possible payment options.

And while there are few answers right now, Jomo Stewart, general manager of Interior Gas Utility (IGU), says the project is proceeding on all fronts. Stewart, who was hired in April, is tasked with developing a business plan for IGU and overseeing the conversion process.

"Were all rolling the ball forward," Stewart says.

Date Pushed to 2018

Initially, the project was supposed to get off the ground in 2015, but higher costs and missed deadlines have pushed that date to early 2018. In June, Stewart gave the Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly an update on the project's progress.

"I told the assembly, 'This is becoming realer by the day,'" Stewart says. "It became real on the local level. The distribution system to move gas to almost six thousand people is already in the ground. You would just need to put in service lines. It's within reach of about 5,600 structures. That's a big deal.

"The fact that we're actively under negotiations to get that gas, that's a big deal.

"We're looking at the LNG [liquid natural gas] capacity to get it here, that's a big deal and that's under discussion," he says. "We are trying to make sure we move as expeditiously as we can so we don't back up anybody's timeline."

The delays have been frustrating for many, though.

Karl Gohlke and Eric Chase are Interior contractors who are both active members of a task force organized to look into the logistics and implementation of the project.

Five-Part Puzzle

Bringing long-term natural gas supplies to the Interior is a puzzle with five distinct pieces: a contract to supply natural gas; construction of a liquefaction plant (needed for Cook Inlet gas to be shipped north); transportation options; local distribution; and homeowner conversion.

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