RCA reports Railbelt status to Legislature

Alan Bailey

Petroleum News

The Regulatory Commission of Alaska is sending a letter to the Alaska Legislature, with formal notification of the status of improvements to the manner in which the Alaska Railbelt electrical system is operated and managed. In 2014 the Legislature directed the RCA to investigate the advisability of forming an organization to oversee the operation of the system, which is currently operated by six independent utilities. In 2015 the RCA, in response to the Legislature’s directive, issued five recommendations for addressing the issues that the electrical system faces, with the intention of improving the efficiency and safeguarding the security of the system.

Since then the commission has been encouraging voluntary actions by the utilities to address the commission’s recommendations.

During a Jan. 15 RCA public meeting Robert Pickett, commission chair, read the contents of the letter, which is designed to go to the Legislature ahead of this year’s legislative session, during which proposed statutory changes may be enacted, clarifying the commission’s authority to regulate an organization such as an independent operator for the system. The commission has been reviewing its regulations, in anticipation of new statutes being enacted.

According to the letter, the commission sees particular progress towards one of its recommendations: the institution of a consistent set of enforced operating and reliability standards for the Railbelt grid. In April 2018 the Railbelt utilities filed a consistent single set of mandatory standards. And the utilities are in the process of forming the Railbelt Reliability Council, an organization that will adopt and enforce the standards, as well as adopting and enforcing system-wide interconnection protocols.

Although the utilities have been working towards addressing other recommendations, this work has not thus far achieved the desired results. Last year a proposed transmission company for the transmissions system filed an application to the commission for a certificate to operate, but later withdrew its application. And an initiative by Chugach Electric Association and Municipal Light & Power, potentially involving Matanuska Electric Association, to instigate the economic dispatch of the most efficient power generation came to a halt in 2018, pending the outcome of the proposed acquisition of ML&P by Chugach Electric.

In 2019, in response to one of the RCA recommendations, the Legislature granted the RCA the authority to hire up to five specialists, to assist the commission implement Railbelt electricity system changes.

- ALAN BAILEY