Chugach Electric Association’s headquarters is seen in Anchorage. (Photo by Nathaniel Herz/Northern Journal)
Could solar farms help power the major state-run airports in Anchorage and Fairbanks?
The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities wants to find out, according to newly released public documents.
The department this month issued a 14-page request for information from firms interested in installing solar arrays at the two airports, which collectively consumed more than $5 million in electricity in the state’s last fiscal year.
The request asks firms to assess the potential for a 10-megawatt system at each airport, focused on “reducing energy costs and enhancing sustainability.” A key requirement is a “detailed glare analysis” to ensure that any project would not cause safety risks to aircraft and pilots.
Advocates ask regulators to reconsider ruling that ignored gas conservation proposal
Late last month, a state commission released a major decision allowing Anchorage’s electric utility to raise its rates.
Now, a renewable energy advocacy group is calling on the Regulatory Commission of Alaska to reconsider numerous aspects of the ruling.
Among the reasons the decision should be reconsidered is because it failed to reckon with a proposed natural gas conservation scheme and amounts to an “abdication” of the commission’s legal responsibilities, according to Renewable Energy Alaska Project.
REAP was an intervenor in the commission proceedings reviewing the rate increase requested by Chugach Electric Association. REAP proposed a new pricing scheme for electricity that it said would give residential consumers an incentive to reduce their consumption — thereby preserving natural gas.
After the Regulatory Commission of Alaska filed an 89-page order last month that partially granted Chugach’s request for a rate increase and effectively ignored REAP’s conservation proposal, REAP last week filed a petition that asked the commissioners to reconsider.
The 19-page petition, sprinkled with italics and boldfaced type, is scalding. It asks the commission for nine different actions to correct a decision that REAP calls “unreasonable, erroneous, unlawful and otherwise defective.”
The petition specifically asks the commission to heed a state law that calls for the “conservation” of energy resources used to produce power — in this case, a reference to the diminishing supply of natural gas from Cook Inlet, near Anchorage, that Chugach has long depended on to run its generators.
Chugach filed a separate petition asking the commission to reconsider its rejection of part of the utility’s rate increase request. Chugach had asked permission to charge other utilities more to ship power across some of its transmission lines — specifically those that Chugach acquired when it bought Anchorage’s city-owned utility in 2020.
Nathaniel Herz welcomes tips at natherz@gmail.com or (907) 793-0312. This article was originally published in Northern Journal, a newsletter from Herz. Subscribe at this link.