Grant Lake Hydro construction plan filed

Alan Bailey

for Petroleum News

Kenai Hydro LLC has filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission its construction plan for the Grant Lake Hydroelectric Project on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula. Grant Lake is an L shaped water body in the hills above and to the east of the Seward Highway, where the highway runs through the valley of Moose Pass. The five-megawatt hydro facility would use water diverted from Grant Lake through a tunnel to a powerhouse near the outlet of Grant Creek canyon, a natural rock canyon.

Kenai Hydro is a subsidiary of the Alaska Electric and Energy Cooperative, the entity that generates and transmits power as part of Homer Electric Association. HEA wants to build the facility in support of the use of the renewable energy as part of the utility’s power generation inventory.

In August 2019 FERC issued a license to Kenai Hydro for the construction of the system. Under the terms of the license the company had to file a construction plan within a year of license issuance. The plan anticipates construction of the hydropower system to start in early May 2023, construction of the powerhouse to start in May 2024 and the entire system to be completed at the end of 2024.

A water intake below Grant Lake’s natural water level will be installed to the east of the lake’s natural outlet, in conjunction with a diversion weir and a bypass system for maintaining the required minimum flow rate in Grant Creek. A detention pond adjacent the powerhouse will prevent sudden surges of water flow in lower part of the creek, below the canyon, at times when the hydropower system has to support peaks in power demand on the Alaska Railbelt electrical system.

- ALAN BAILEY