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Fire Island wind farm meets expectations CIRI’s new power generation facility offshore Anchorage has generated more than 18,000 megawatts since startup in August Alan Bailey Petroleum News
Although Cook Inlet Region Inc.’s new wind farm on Fire Island, offshore Anchorage, officially opened its doors in mid-September, the electricity generation facility actually started feeding power to Chugach Electric Association, its only customer, in August, during the final stages of testing of the plant.
Between then and the end of December the wind farm delivered more than 18,000 megawatt hours of power, Lee Thibert, senior vice president of Chugach Electric, told the Regulatory Commission of Alaska in a Jan.16 status report for the Fire Island wind project. That amount of power displaced more than 196 million cubic feet of natural gas that would otherwise have been needed for gas-fired power generation, Thibert wrote.
Running smoothly The power output from Fire Island progressively increased from 2,372 megawatt hours in August and September to 6,265 megawatt hours in December. And, despite a vigorous debate prior to commissioning of the plant about potential problems with integrating the fluctuating power output from the wind farm into the Alaska Railbelt electricity grid, the integration of the plant into the grid has apparently progressed smoothly.
“Chugach is not aware of any electrical system operational issues as a result of Chugach receiving energy from the (wind farm) project,” Thibert wrote. “There were no curtailments of project energy deliveries through Dec. 31, 2012.”
Thibert said that Chugach Electric personnel are rapidly gaining experience in the scheduling of power that the utilities receive from hydropower and gas-fired power resources, to mesh the fluctuating wind-generated power in with those other power sources.
“Chugach expects that its personnel will gain an even better understanding of how best to integrate the (wind) project as the year progresses,” Thibert said.
Thibert said that Chugach Electric is working with Fire Island Wind, the Cook Inlet Region Inc. subsidiary that operates the wind farm, on final testing and commissioning of the computer system that will be used for the monitoring of the energy output of the farm. Meantime, the two companies have been using their separately collected revenue metering data to determine how much electricity the wind farm has been generating.
Renewable energy credits Chugach Electric has also worked with Fire Island Wind to register the wind farm with the North American Renewables Registry. That will enable the wind farm to create tradable renewable energy credits that, under the terms of the power purchase agreement with Chugach Electric, will belong to the power utility. Chugach Electric is exploring a means of using the credits to implement a green pricing program for its member ratepayers, Thibert wrote.
Thibert said that two issues relating to the wind farm power purchase agreement remain to be resolved following the startup of the facility.
The more straightforward of these issues, a problem over the rating of the switchgear that Fire Island Wind installed in the wind farm, is close to resolution, Thibert said.
Transmission line issues However, the other problem, the handover of responsibility for the submarine power transmission line that connects Fire Island with Chugach Electricity’s onshore substation, appears rather more difficult. The company which built the transmission line, Chugach and Cook Inlet Transmission LLC, or CIT, was supposed to transfer title and custody of the line to Chugach Electric upon completion of the line. But one of CIT’s contractors damaged one of the submarine cables during installation and the subsequent repair to the line voided the warranty on a portion of the cable, Thibert said. In addition, CIT did not bury “large sections” of the cable to the required depth of five feet, he wrote.
Although there has been progress in discussions over the submarine cable problems, the problems have not yet been resolved — Chugach Electric is unwilling to take any long-term risk by accepting custody of a system with known defects, Thibert said.
“Chugach has been and will continue to be adamant that it and its member-ratepayers will not bear any increased risk or cost as a result of these outstanding issues,” he wrote.
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