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Pump Station 9 goes electric Alyeska signs 20-year contract to purchase electricity from Interior Alaska utility for Delta-area pump station Patricia Liles Petroleum News Contributing Writer
Alyeska Pipeline Service Co., operator of the 800-mile trans-Alaska pipeline system, plans to convert one of its pumping stations to electricity, drawing up to 16 megawatts of power from the Interior Alaska electric grid.
Part of Alyeska’s $250 million pipeline reconfiguration project is an effort to either electrify or upgrade existing power generation equipment in four pump stations, 1, 3, 4 and 9. Pump Station 9, a few miles south of Delta Junction, will be hooked up to the existing Interior Alaska electric power grid, operated by Fairbanks-based Golden Valley Electric Association.
Currently, diesel-fired generators provide electricity at the pump stations. “A clean, reliable, electric power source provides substantial advantages for Alyeska, including environmental improvements over the current dependence on liquid fuel,” said Alyeska president and CEO David Wight, in a June 25 press release announcing the 20-year contract with Golden Valley Electric for electric supply.
“Electricity generated by GVEA will power three new 6,500 horsepower electric motors and pumps that will boost the pressure in the pipeline to move oil from Pump Station 9 to the Valdez Marine Terminal,” the release said. “Power for the new station will be available late in 2005 to coincide with construction and start-up of the new equipment.”
Alyeska plans to install new, cleaner-burning and more fuel-efficient diesel generators at Pump Stations 3 and 4, said spokesman Curtis Thomas. Alyeska is still considering numerous options for electric power at Pump Station 1 on the North Slope, he added, declining to reveal potential power sources.
“We’re looking for the best solution for moving oil, the most cost effective and the best for Alyeska,” he said. Options to change the electrical supply at Pump Station 7, which is about 60 miles north of Fairbanks, are also being considered, Thomas said. Spending to save Alyeska estimates that the $250 million reconfiguration of pipeline operations will reduce operations costs by roughly 10 percent annually, Thomas said. “We’ll eliminate maintenance costs for equipment and facilities that will no longer be required.”
The actual dollar savings will fluctuate, depending on what particular maintenance projects are eliminated by the reconfiguration. Average yearly operating cost for the trans-Alaska pipeline is $500 million, he said.
Included in the capital reconfiguration costs is an undisclosed amount for a contract with Golden Valley Electric to pay for a two-mile transmission line to extend power service from Fort Greeley to Pump Station 9. In addition, Alyeska is helping to pay for Static Var Compensation (SVC) equipment, which provides voltage support, in Golden Valley’s Jarvis Creek substation. “The SVC was necessary because of Alyeska’s large load at the end of the line,” Golden Valley spokeswoman Corinne Bradish said. Golden Valley invests in southern line Golden Valley’s electric grid will be upgraded as a result of the Alyeska contract and other new electric demand in the Delta Junction area.
Construction of the Pogo gold mine northeast of Delta Junction is expected to add 13 megawatts of demand to Golden Valley’s system, and the National Missile Defense project at Fort Greeley should add another 5 megawatts. Including general growth in the Delta Junction area, Golden Valley plans to add another 35 megawatts of power demand to its system load, Bradish said. Right now, Golden Valley provides about 10 megawatts of power to the Delta Junction area.
To supply this new electric demand, Golden Valley plans to build a new substation in North Pole, adjacent to its existing facilities, and to upgrade its Carney substation near shuttered Pump Station 8, about midway between Fairbanks and Delta Junction.
In addition, the utility plans to build a new 138 kV transmission line from North Pole to the Carney substation, which will increase the utility’s capacity to send up to 70 megawatts of electric power south, Bradish said.
Estimated costs for those projects, which are scheduled to begin this winter and be completed in October 2005, are $8 million for the transmission line and $4 million for the two substations.
In addition, Golden Valley plans to build a new gas-fired power plant in North Pole, providing an additional 60 megawatts of power when completed in early 2006. A contract to build that facility is expected to be signed sometime in July, Bradish said. Estimated costs are $75 million.
That new generation plant is due “on line right around the time we’ll be needing to serve Alyeska,” Bradish said. “They’re all tied together.”
The electric association will receive “return on the cost of this infrastructure through power sales agreements with Alyeska and eventually Pogo. We signed a 20-year contract with Alyeska and they’ll be billed under our industrial rate.”
Industrial users are charged $180 per month, plus a demand charge of $11.25 per kilowatt and an energy charge of 5.197 cents per kilowatt hour. Golden Valley and Alyeska both declined to reveal estimated electric costs for powering the pump station.
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