he Railbelt has no redundancy.
“If we have a power problem in Anchorage and the line to Fairbanks goes down, we don’t have a Plan B,” says Curtis W. Thayer, executive director of the Alaska Energy Authority (AEA).
In the past, natural disasters have forced parts of the electricity transmission grid from the Kenai Peninsula to Fairbanks, a 700-mile corridor known as the Railbelt, to close.
In 2019, a wildfire near Cooper Landing shut down part of the Sterling to Quartz Creek transmission line for four months in the summer. Not only were Chugach Electric Association (CEA) and Matanuska Electric Association (MEA) cut off from the Bradley Lake Hydroelectric Project near Homer, forcing them to purchase more natural gas, but the water level at the dam overflowed, wasting energy. The ordeal cost Alaskan ratepayers more than $10 million.
Last November, another section of that line was closed for around a week because of a snowstorm. It was fixed quickly, but the incident was a warning sign.
“What happens if it was down for a month in the middle of winter? That would be very bad. This last winter we had this very bad cold snap, and we were using all the natural gas we can and using Bradley power as much as we can,” says Thayer, “but if that line was down, we would have had major problems; that’s 10 percent of our power needs.”
The Railbelt grid also supplies power to five military bases, adding to the urgency for more reliability. Another problem is inefficiency due to the distance involved. Around 17 percent of power from Bradley Lake, the largest hydroelectric dam in the state, is reserved for Fairbanks. The miles of wire in between result in unavoidable “line loss.” Thayer says there are times of the year when one-fifth of the energy sent from Bradley Lake to Fairbanks just bleeds away into the air.
These vulnerabilities have driven efforts to fortify the Railbelt grid, just as funding arrives to pay for the long-awaited improvements.
But things are not perfect.
“The transmission systems that make up the Railbelt were designed to meet the needs within each service area but have limited capacity to transmit power in several locations,” says Julie Hasquet, senior manager of corporate communications for CEA. “The result is congestion at these interties, which limits the transmission of power throughout the Railbelt.”
Many of the transmission lines in the Railbelt are more than forty years old and need to be upgraded to meet current demand, according to Thayer.
Also, a shortage of natural gas looms in the future. Historically, the Railbelt has relied on natural gas from Cook Inlet. In 2022, that fuel provided two-thirds of the energy used in the grid, according to a recent report from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. However, that resource is declining, so utilities are looking for other resources.
One part aims to integrate high-voltage direct current (HVDC) submarine cables into the grid, parallel to existing lines carrying alternating current. These cables will run from the Kenai Peninsula, across Cook Inlet, and to the Beluga Power Plant, which services Anchorage and the Matanuska-Susitna Borough. As AEA explained to state legislators in April, HVDC across Cook Inlet will act as a redundant transmission system.
AEA also wants to build one or two battery energy storage stations, one in Anchorage and one in Fairbanks. GVEA has pioneered utility-scale battery storage in Fairbanks, and a more modern technology is being tested in Soldotna. In June, the US Department of Agriculture awarded GVEA a $100 million loan for a lithium-ion system. Thanks to GVEA’s partnership with Doyon, Limited, the Alaska Native corporation for the Interior region, up to $60 million of the loan qualifies for forgiveness.
Enhanced transmission and storage capacity outlined in the resiliency project would increase redundancy and security of the electric grid. As a bonus, upgrades would also simplify the integration of renewable energy into the Railbelt.
“Expanding the capacity of these interties will allow for the lower-cost generation resources to be available to all customers on the Railbelt and will enable new utility-scale wind, solar, and hydroelectric renewable projects to be more cost effective for customers,” Hasquet says. “Renewable projects are built where the resources are located, and transmission must be built to bring that additional clean energy to consumers.”
In addition to furthering long-term sustainability goals, Alaskans will see immediate benefits once the upgrade is complete.
“The best part about that is if there’s an earthquake or a natural disaster or something, and that one line goes down, we’ve got that secondary line; we’ve still got power on,” Thayer says.
Last October, the US Department of Energy (DOE) distributed $3 billion across the country for the Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnership (GRIP). Alaska’s share is $206 million, to be administered by AEA for the Railbelt Innovation Resiliency Project.
“This is going to transform the Railbelt in Alaska,” says Thayer.
The state would need to match that funding. While $206 million has not yet been set aside, the Railbelt upgrades will take around eight years to complete. And in the short term , the legislature set aside nearly $33 million for the Railbelt upgrades.
“I’m optimistic that the State will match the grant funding,” says Representative Mary Peltola. “I’ve spoken to many legislators about this project, and they understand the gravity of affordable, reliable energy in the state. I understand our legislature has a lot of tough decisions about funding, but I’m going to continue to advocate for cheaper and more reliable energy on the Railbelt.”
In its April presentation to the House Finance Committee, AEA projected that it will complete an environmental impact assessment and find a contractor by the end of 2027. That’s when the big spending will begin, according to Thayer.
Although the specific costs for each part of the Railbelt Innovation Resiliency Project have not been hammered out, Thayer is confident that all parties involved will come to an agreement.
“Considering we only got the award in October, and the legislation and the utilities were able to work together and bring almost $33 million to the table, I think you’ll see some sort of plan this year and next year to do that,” he says. “There’s a lot of support for it. Everybody understands the need for it.”
Since DOE is matching what the state puts forward, Alaska should secure around $66 million when the grant agreement is done in the fall. Thayer believes that amount is more than enough to get started in the first year.
The state expects 650 “highly paid jobs” while also establishing apprenticeship and internship programs during construction.
“A lot of wins for everyone involved in this, but at the end of the day, the ratepayers and the citizens on the Railbelt are going to benefit the most,” Thayer says.
For the one-quarter of Alaskans not plugged into the Railbelt grid, the project represents a statewide economic boost. “Whether you’re on the Railbelt or not, more energy supply means we all get more for less,” says Peltola. “For engineers, truckers, and workers, it means more jobs constructing an energy grid of the future.”
“We sit right in the center,” says Estey, “so we can buy and sell power between MEA and Chugach Electric pretty easily; we have some redundant transmission among us. But if we want to look at any projects on the Kenai or in the Interior, or if we want to do anything collaborative with Homer Electric or Golden Valley, we’re really limited in the current system in a couple different ways.”
Those limits are primarily technological and administrative, according to Estey.
The limitations include insufficient energy storage and transmission lines that are too small to move large amounts of electricity. “Right now, we have low transmission and storage capacity, meaning it’s not practical to build more energy production here,” says Peltola. “If a power plant makes more power than their surrounding area is consuming, that power can’t be stored, and it’s expensive to send it to the next community over. Those logistical challenges are stopping projects throughout the Railbelt.”
The Railbelt grid was not built with interconnection in mind. Originally, the five different power utilities evolved to serve their local populations. “Because we all own our own small segment of the transmission line. It’s not necessarily operated as a whole,” Estey says.
Over time, the regions grew bigger, and the populations became closer. A major step toward integration occurred in the ‘80s with the construction of the Alaska Intertie, a 170-mile transmission line between Willow and Healy.
The more interconnected the grid is, and the more efficiently utilities can move electricity around, the less energy costs. In Mat-Su, energy costs $0.20 per kWh, and around $0.08, or 40 percent of that, is the cost of generating energy, according to Estey. As the grid becomes more integrated, and it is easier to access energy from other regions, that cost will decrease.
Recognizing the advantages of cooperation, the utilities formed the Railbelt Reliability Council in 2022. The nonprofit gives each participant a voice in developing reliability and interconnection standards. The council is also a forum for joint planning, guiding the implementation of the Railbelt Innovation Resiliency Project.
The unified front helped convince DOE to award GRIP funding for the work to come.
“The first and most important are the technical challenges, and that’s really what this GRIP is about,” Estey says. “That gets us a long way toward providing options as we look at our uncertain energy future.”