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Company applies to FERC for Angoon tidal power evaluation
Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
Littoral Power Systems Inc. has applied to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for a preliminary permit for a tidal power project at Kootznahoo Inlet near Angoon on Admiralty Island in Southeast Alaska.
This is one of two preliminary tidal power permit applications in Alaska that FERC is considering - this small project and a much larger one in Cook Inlet.
A preliminary permit, if issued, grants the permit holder priority to file a license application during the permit term.
Littoral Power Systems, LPS, said the preliminary permit would allow it to “evaluate the potential for generating electricity from tidal energy in Kootznahoo Inlet in Angoon, Alaska.”
The company told FERC that tidal currents at Turn Point are known to be powerful and cited an Alaska Power Authority report from 1981 titled “Angoon Tidal Power and Comparative Analysis,” which looked at power generation options which would allow the City of Angoon to replace on-site diesel generators. Generating electricity from tidal power in Kootznahoo Inlet was one of the options considered, but, due to the location’s remoteness, LPS said, “more accurate assessments of the tidal power resource are not available.”
“The project concept would be to generate electric power from a marine hydrokinetic device and store power in an energy storage system to be used by the City of Angoon as a supplement to other energy sources,” LPS said.
The company said a turbine or combination of turbines generating 300 kilowatts would be appropriate based on existing power demand in Angoon and allowing for some growth. Such a turbine would produce some 600-megawatt hours of electricity in a year.
There would be distribution cables fastened to the seabed between the turbine generator and the landfall location and an energy storage system which would likely include state-of-the art battery storage technology such as lithium-ion systems currently used for grid electricity storage.
LPS said it expects that two cables would be installed, one for primary use and the other for redundancy.
Preliminary studies for the project are estimated at $50,000.
LPS said lands on Admiralty Island which adjoin the project area are part of the Kootznoowoo Wilderness. The company said the project would have no impact on the wilderness area.
Proposed project In its notice of preliminary permit application FERC said the proposed project would include:
*A partially buoyant submersed tidal current energy converter with a 3-foot-diameter rotor tethered to an anchor post driven into the seabed in Kootznahoo Inlet;
*A dual electric cable, each with a capacity of 13.2 kilowatts, connecting to on-land storage; and
*On-land storage in the City of Angoon consisting of individual lithium-ion battery cells.
The application was prepared for LPS by Barrett Energy Resources Group, which said in a technical memorandum to FERC that the location of the partially buoyant submerged tidal current energy converter, CEC, would be marked by a U.S. Coast Guard-approved floating buoy. The tether would allow the CEC to move with tidal currents to capture both ebb and flow conditions.
FERC said the project would not connect directly to the Angoon electric system. The on-land storage system would have a capacity of 250 kilowatts, FERC said, with annual average generation not yet determined.
FERC is accepting comments on the permit application for 60 days from the March 17 application acceptance.
Turnagain Arm project FERC has also accepted a preliminary permit application for another, and much larger, Alaska project, the Turnagain Arm Tidal Electric Generation Project (see story in March 21 issue of Petroleum News). That application was accepted on April 28, with a 60-day comment period.
FERC said the proposed project would consist of:
*Six 0.5-mile-long, 300-foot-wide tidal power stations, five stations containing 40 10-megawatt tidal-to-electrical energy generating units and one station containing 42 10-MW tidal-to-electrical energy units; total installed capacity of 2,420 MW;
*A transmission network of 29.81 miles of undersea transmission lines connecting the six power stations and coming onshore at Point Campbell in Anchorage and near Possession Point on Kenai Peninsula Borough land;
*A 7.5-mile-long aboveground transmission line from Point Campbell to a control building and step-up facility in South Anchorage;
*A 2.91-mile-long, 130-kilovolt aboveground transmission line from the Anchorage control building to a 40,000-square-foot industrial battery array with a storage capacity of 300 MW and then to the Chugach Electric Association substation in Anchorage;
*A 0.2-mile-long, 230 kV aboveground transmission line from the control building to a 200,000-square-foot hydrogen electrolysis plant and storage yard in South Anchorage with a processing capacity of up to 1.2-gigawatts;
*A 34.8-mile aboveground transmission line from Point Possession to a control building and step-up facility in Nikiski;
*A 2.75-mile-long, 230 kV aboveground transmission line from the Nikiski control building to the Homer Electric Association substation; and
*Appurtenant facilities.
The proposed project would have an estimated average annual general of 10,599,500 megawatt hours.
- KRISTEN NELSON
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