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Planning for the future RRC CEO talks to Legislature about planning Southcentral's electricity system
ALAN BAILEY
During a Feb. 11 Legislative Lunch and Learn session Ed Jenkin, chief executive officer of the Railbelt Reliability Council, talked to state lawmakers about the RRC approach to the regional planning of the Railbelt high voltage electrical system. The system consists of the electricity transmission network and associated power generation facilities along the Railbelt, stretching from the southern Kenai Peninsula north through the Anchorage region and up to Fairbanks in the Interior. The purpose of the planning is to ensure adequate and reliable electricity supplies for consumers at the lowest realistic cost.
Duties of the RRC The high-voltage system is owned and operated by five independent utilities and the Alaska Energy Authority. The RRC was formed in 2020, as required by a state statute. The organization is tasked with establishing a system wide set of reliability standards, administering rules for open access to the transmission grid and conducting Railbelt-wide integrated resource planning. In parallel, the Railbelt Transmission Organization, another organization mandated under state statutes, is developing a unified tariff arrangement for the transmission system, to minimize long-distance tariff fees and thus facilitate the connection of new power generation facilities to the grid.
The RRC is governed by a board with a diverse group of members representing various Railbelt electrical system stakeholders. Operating under the board is a technical advisory committee consisting of an independent group of subject matter experts. This committee oversees working groups consisting of stakeholders in the electrical system.
The RRC began developing electricity system reliability standards in early 2024 and is continuing to deliver tranches of standards to the Regulatory Commission of Alaska for RCA approval.
Integrated resource planning has begun In August 2025 the organization initiated the process for developing the IRP. In December the organization announced that it had selected consultancy company Black and Veatch to work on the IRP. The RRC has been preparing definitions and objectives for the planning and has been sending data requests to the electricity utilities, Jenkin said.
In particular because of constraints in the electricity transmission system, such as the single transmission line between the Matanuska Susitna Valley and Healy, on the north side of the Alaska Range, it is vital to consider both the generation and transmission resources when conducting regional planning, Jenkin told the legislators. And planning is conducted through the modeling of how the system will operate, based on anticipated future electricity loads and evaluations of what resources will be needed to meet those loads.
For example, if a new transmission line were to be built between Anchorage and Fairbanks, how would that impact the required mix of generation assets?
Other factors include scenarios for future natural gas supplies for power generation.
Computer modeling The various factors are plugged into an electricity system computer model. The model enables testing of the impacts of factors such as the potential loss of a power generator. And the computer modeling allows the comparison of as many as 20 different options, potentially including generation options, transmission options and possible load reduction options, Jenkin said.
The power generation planning considers factors such as the optimum portfolio of future generation assets. Transmission planning will work in conjunction with generation planning to test for reliability standards compliance together with a transmission expansion plan consistent with candidate generation portfolios.
Discussions with the RRC working group will then result in an agreement on what the base case plan will be.
The preferred plan The process will ultimately result in what is referred to as "the preferred plan," a plan that takes into account the lowest reasonable cost, consistent with factors such as reliability, resilience and environmental impacts. An action plan and implementation schedule will then be developed for the preferred plan. The RRC anticipates the selection of a preferred portfolio of assets by the end of this year, with an action plan ready by the end of the first quarter of 2027 for submission to the RCA for approval. And any project involving power generation of more than 15 megawatts or a transmission line more than 10 miles long requires pre-approval from the RCA, Jenkin said.
The action plan will include components such as a process for accomplishing required projects at minimum cost, a timeline for key activities, and a process for enabling load serving entities in the electrical system to determine how they will apportion costs.
The statutes under which the RRC operates require the IRP to be revised every two years, with a new plan being developed every four years, Jenkin said. So, as the situation changes over time, new plans will be developed, taking these changes into account, he said.
Previous planning efforts Jenkin commented that there have been previous efforts at integrated resource planning for the Railbelt, but that none of these plans have ever been implemented. In this new situation, however, there has to be an action plan for implementation. And the RRC has to figure out how the plan will be paid for before presenting the plan to the RCA for approval. He also commented that the Railbelt Transmission Organization will play a key role in developing a mechanism for allocating transmission costs in a known and predictable manner.
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