Battle Creek Division project wins award

Petroleum News

The Alaska Energy Authority said Jan. 5 that its West Fork Upper Battle Creek Division has been selected by the American Council of Engineering Companies of Montana for the organizations’ 2021 Montana Grand Project Award.

The project, designed by DOWL, will increase annual energy production from the Bradley Lake Hydrocarbon Project by 10% by diverting more water to Bradley Lake, providing some 37,000 megawatt hours of renewable energy per year, AEA said.

The project includes a diversion dam and 2 miles of pipeline to divert water from the Upper Battle Creek basin to the Bradley Lake Reservoir.

The award recognizes a project with unique or innovative technologies, enhanced awareness for the engineering profession, use of social, economic and sustainable design and successfully meeting client/owner’s needs, including schedule and budget.

The Bradley Lake facility, one of the cheapest sources of power on the Alaska Railbelt electricity grid, is owned by AEA and operated under contract by Homer Electric Association and managed by a committee consisting of representatives of the Railbelt electric utilities.

The project was financed by bonds authorized by the AEA board in late December 2017. Work on the project began in May 2018; it was completed in the summer of 2020, with a ribbon cutting ceremony Aug. 25.

AEA Board Chair Dana Pruhs thanked ACEC of Montana for the award.

“This project is an excellent example of the benefits associated with the design-bid-build delivery construction,” he said, and thanked DOWL for its involvement in the project.

“What we were able to accomplish in collaboration with our project partners Chugach Electric Association, Homer Electric Association, Matanuska Electric Association, and the City of Seward is something to be proud of,” said AEA Executive Director Curtis Thayer. He said the diversion of water from Battle Creek to behind the Bradley Lake dam allows “the project to deliver more lower-cost energy to the ratepayers,” something, he said, squarely within the agency’s mission.

- Petroleum News