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Energy plan released at annual conference Alaska Energy Authority releases new energy plan, which calls for big gains in energy efficiency, conservation, and renewables Stefan Milkowski For Petroleum News
Statewide energy coordinator Steve Haagenson rolled out a new energy planning document in late April meant to help communities across Alaska develop sustainable, affordable sources of energy.
The “Alaska Energy Pathway” builds on the resource inventory and energy technology analysis the Alaska Energy Authority completed in 2009. It incorporates the Integrated Resource Plan developed for the Railbelt region, and it offers individualized development plans for 227 non-Railbelt communities.
The plan restates the goal of generating 50 percent of the state’s electricity from renewable sources by 2025, and incorporates a new goal of reducing energy consumption by 15 percent by 2020 through energy efficiency and another 5 percent through energy conservation.
“This document is really a next step,” Haagenson said as he released the new report April 27 at the 6th Rural Energy Conference in Fairbanks.
Haagenson told the record crowd of almost 450 business, community, and government representatives that the plan will rely on people like them to carry it forward. He likened a mandate to the list of chores his wife gives him. “It doesn’t get done,” he said. “Nothing personal at all — it’s just not my list.”
“What I want to do is engage Alaskans in making this their list,” Haagenson went on. “This is their list of things they can do locally, with their own resources, and pulling together to get their future secured.”
Report on CD The report, most of which is contained on a compact disc, contains reams of information, including the entire integrated resource plan for the Railbelt, an analysis of using propane in villages, energy-saving tips, and community assessments that estimate current energy usage and project savings from energy efficiency and renewable energy. The plan also provides initial cost estimates for using renewable energy for heating in addition to electrical generation.
Haagenson said non-Railbelt regions already generate 63 percent of their electricity from renewable sources, thanks mostly to hydroelectric plants in Southeast. By investing in efficiency and renewables, the non-Railbelt regions could increase that figure to 91 percent, saving nearly 30 million gallons of fuel per year and reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 77 percent, he said. The regions could also increase the percentage of non-fossil fuel heating sources from the current 10 percent to 45 percent.
The challenge for the Railbelt, Haagenson said, will be to come up with financing for the major electrical generation projects identified in the integrated resource plan. That study found that Railbelt utilities will need to invest roughly $7.5 billion in the next 20 years, but have only $1 billion to $2.5 billion in debt capacity.
Haagenson said AEA worked with the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Alaska Center for Energy and Power, the engineering firm WHPacific Inc., the cost-estimating firm HMS Inc. and many others on the report. He said AEA will accept comments on the draft report through May.
A gathering of energy minds According to sponsors, nearly 450 people from almost 100 different communities attended the 2010 Rural Energy Conference, held April 27 to April 29 in Fairbanks. The event included three days of presentations and technical sessions on topics ranging from ocean energy to food security. The conference was sponsored by AEA, ACEP, the Denali Commission, and Chena Power.
ACEP director Gwen Holdmann said the conference is meant to provide a venue to share ideas and experiences, successes and failures. This year’s theme was “New energy for sustainable communities.”
Several speakers praised the wide-reaching energy legislation passed this year by the Alaska Legislature and described a growing effort at the state level to reduce energy consumption and get off fossil fuels. “There is state leadership now on energy efficiency that we didn’t have just a few years ago,” said Chris Rose, executive director of the Renewable Energy Alaska Project.
Jack Hébert, president and CEO of the Cold Climate Housing Research Center, said CCHRC is designing homes that can reduce energy consumption by 80 percent. But he cautioned that rural communities will have to be designed differently if they are to be sustainable. He noted that a third of CCHRC’s staff live in cabins without running water. “That’s what they can afford, so that’s what they have.”
Tanana Chiefs Conference President Jerry Isaac urged attendees to become leaders and followers in a quest to cut the use of imported fuels in half in one year. “We know we’re not going to do it in a year, but the idea is born,” he said.
Regional planning Railbelt utilities are continuing to work together despite the failure of legislation creating a joint Railbelt utility, according to Mark Fouts of Chugach Electric Association. At the least, utilities will have to create some entity to oversee the Northern Intertie, for which rules are set to expire in November, he said.
Chugach and the Matanuska Electric Association have already agreed to form a joint generation and transmission entity or enter into a power sales agreement, he added, and other utilities will likely join together out of necessity or to take advantage of opportunities like the state-backed Bradley Lake hydroelectric project. “Opportunities like that in the future will probably bring everybody together again,” he said.
Robert Venables of the Southeast Conference said his group had envisioned a Southeast grid, with remote communities connected by long transmission lines, but is now focused on localized energy sources.
“The whole thing is technically feasible,” he said of the connected grid, “but unfortunately economic viability is not the same as technical feasibility.”
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