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Federal grants approved
AEA authorizes use of funds for Railbelt transmission upgrade and solar energy
Alan Bailey for Petroleum News
During its Sept. 10 meeting the board of the Alaska Energy Authority approved the acceptance of two federal grant awards, one for a major upgrade to the Alaska Railbelt electricity transmission system and the other for implementing community and residential solar energy programs. Approval of the awards will enable the agency to move forward with work funded under the award programs.
Transmission upgrade The transmission system award of $206 million comes from the Department of Energy under round one of the federal Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships, or GRIP, award program. The federal funding, which requires matching funds from elsewhere, is for the construction of a 38-mile high-voltage direct current transmission line under the Cook Inlet from the Kenai Peninsula to the Anchorage region. Currently there is just a single, relatively low-capacity transmission intertie between Anchorage and the peninsula, an arrangement that constitutes a single point of failure in the transmission system and a capacity constraint on the sharing of power generation in the Railbelt.
System constraints "This 'once-in-a-generation investment' offers a unique opportunity for the Railbelt and all of Alaska to reap the benefits," said AEA Board Chair Clay Koplin. "Once completed, the HVDC line will add much-needed redundancy to Alaska's Railbelt electrical grid system, modernize and upgrade our energy infrastructure, and create a more flexible energy grid able to accept and distribute energy from renewable sources."
The funding will also contribute to the installation of two battery energy storage systems in the Alaska Railbelt electrical grid.
Limitations in the Railbelt transmission system pose, for example, an obstacle to the widespread implementation of renewable energy generation in the Railbelt -- a recent report by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory on the possibility of a major increase in the use of renewables in the Railbelt assumed that a second transmission line would be built between the Kenai Peninsula and load centers in the Anchorage region.
Matching funds Curtis Thayer, AEA executive director, has previously told Petroleum News that the original announcement of the funding came too late for the provision of full matching funds in this year's state budget. However, AEA says that $32.7 million of matching funds have already been identified for use to start the project -- the state has allocated an initial $12.7 million towards the matching funds, while the Railbelt electric utilities had $20 million in bond funding available that could also be contributed.
With the AEA board now having approved the grant, work can progress on the transmission line project, provided that any federal funds that are used are exactly balanced by contributions from the matching funds. Under the terms of the grant the state has 8 years to complete the project.
AEA has also applied for a federal grant for upgrading the northern transmission intertie, connecting into Fairbanks, by building a new transmission line between Beluga and Healy.
The Solar For All Grant The other award, the Solar For All Grant award, authorizes a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency grant of $62.5 million for the implementation of community and residential solar energy programs that will benefit low-income and disadvantaged households. AEA will work in partnership with the Alaska Housing and Finance Corp. to make use of the grant.
"AEA's mission of reducing energy costs for Alaskans is directly aligned with this funding," Thayer said following AEA approval of the award. "Furthermore, this initiative contributes to the sustainability of our most vulnerable communities by enhancing energy resilience."
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