Some clouds have a silver lining

Residents of Southcentral Alaska, awash with overflowing creeks and flooded roads after a series of severe storms resulted in an exceptionally wet September, are tired of seeing the rain pelting down from leaden skies. But it may come as some consolation to know that this same deluge of water from the heavens has resulted in the unanticipated blessing of some free electricity.

The rain has caused the water levels at the Bradley Lake and Eklutna hydropower facilities to overtop their dams, causing the facility operators to run the systems at full capacity to reduce the water level, pushing an unexpected surge of hydro power into the Southcentral grid at little incremental cost to the system — free electricity, in effect, James Posey, general manager of Municipal Light & Power, told the Anchorage Mayor’s Energy Task Force on Sept. 26.

“We’re running Bradley flat out; we’re running Eklutna flat out, in order not to waste water,” Posey said, adding that water over the dam rather than through a turbine is water wasted.

The water levels in the dams will see the hydro systems through to June or July of next year, at which point the operators will start allowing the lakes to replenish, Posey said.

—Alan Bailey