ORPC surrenders East Foreland permit

Tells FERC that Cook Inlet tidal power is not competing on cost with conventional energy sources in the Alaska energy market

ALAN BAILEY

Petroleum News

Ocean Renewable Power Co. has surrendered its Federal Energy Regulatory Commission preliminary permit for the development of a tidal power facility at East Foreland, on the eastern side of Alaska’s Cook Inlet. The company had been working with Homer Electric Association on the potential development of a facility to harness the massive tides of Cook Inlet as a renewable source of electrical power.

Referred to as hydrokinetics, ORPC’s in-current technology uses submerged helical-shaped water turbines to gather energy from flowing water, either in a river or in the form of an ocean tidal current. ORPC has successfully deployed a hydrokinetic tidal power system in Maine.

But relatively high up-front fixed costs for a system that would deliver modest amounts of electricity into the Southcentral grid make it difficult for tidal power to compete with the gas-fired power generation and hydropower that dominate the Southcentral electricity market.

“The strength of the conventional energy market in Alaska precludes timely integration of new technology, like tidal energy systems, and advancement of the project at the pace established by the schedule of activities,” Nathan Johnson, ORPC director, environmental affairs, wrote in a Dec. 11 letter to FERC requesting surrender of the East Forelands permit.

Public and private funding sources for the project have sought nearer-term impacts from their investments and that has negatively impacted ORPC’s ability to expeditiously gather site data during Alaska’s limited field season and thus to maintain pace with milestones set by FERC, Johnson wrote.

Johnson said that work already conducted at East Foreland had established the technical viability of generating tidal power in the area. That work has included tidal current velocity measurements at two potential turbine sites, a detailed bathymetric survey of the project area and an environmental assessment that included the acoustic monitoring of beluga whale activity in the area. ORPC has also conducted extensive project development work, Johnson said. The significant work already accomplished will provide the basis for future tidal energy development, when market conditions and related funding opportunities are more favorable, he said.

ORPC has been moving ahead with tests of a hydrokinetic system involving the installation of an in-river turbine in the Kvichak River at the village of Igiugig, near Lake Iliamna in southwest Alaska. In-river power generation appears to have significant potential in rural Alaska, where energy costs tend to be extremely high. This summer and in the summer of 2014 the company installed a prototype turbine in the river at Igiugig, to test the practicalities of the system. If the system goes fully operational, the concept is to place a device in the river for much of the year, removing the device for annual maintenance during breakup, when ice tends to flow out of Lake Iliamna.