Chugach Electric seeks hydro permit

Proposed 70 megawatt power station, reservoir would be on Snow River on Kenai Peninsula north of Seward and east of Kenai Lake

ALAN BAILEY

Petroleum News

Anchorage-based electric utility Chugach Electric Association has applied to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for a preliminary permit that will enable the utility to investigate the construction of a new hydroelectric power station on Snow River on the Kenai Peninsula. Snow River flows into Kenai Lake through the mountains on the east side of the Seward Highway, about halfway between the city of Seward and the community of Moose Pass. Most of the proposed project lies within the Chugach National Forest.

If constructed as envisaged, the power station would have an installed capacity of 70.9 megawatts, powered from a 5,321-acre, 15-mile long reservoir in the valley through which the Snow River runs. Chugach Electric proposes the construction of a main dam and two saddle dams with a crest elevation of 1,300 feet above sea level. With a dam freeboard of 20 feet, the maximum elevation of the water surface of the reservoir would be 1,280 feet. There are two different potential schemes for delivering water through a system of tunnels to a powerhouse below the dam.

Chugach Electric says that the proposed facility could deliver 341,433 megawatt-hours of electricity annually through a transmission line into the Railbelt transmission grid, which runs to the west of the proposed powerhouse. The utility says that the power would be supplied to its retail, commercial and wholesale customers.

The purpose of the FERC permit application is to give Chugach Electric the exclusive right to conduct the work required to investigate the project and prepare an application for a FERC license. A FERC license would be required before the hydropower facility could be constructed.

Chugach Electric estimates that the work involved in preparing a license application would cost about $1 million and would involve engineering, feasibility and environmental studies. There is a long list of potential stakeholders in the licensing process, including state and federal government agencies; Native organizations; and environmental organizations.

An outline schedule for the FERC license application indicates that initial stakeholder consultations would be completed by the end of this year, with the various required studies and data collection being conducted in 2018 and 2019. Chugach Electric envisages the initial preparation of the license application in the second half of 2019.