‘Very old transmission lines’: Golden Valley to oversee upgrades projects, Intertie snowload protection system
The Alaska Energy Authority has awarded nearly $21 million in grants to Golden Valley Electric Association to pay for three projects that will make the co-op’s system, and the Railbelt grid it’s connected to, more reliable.
Golden Valley spokesperson Ashley Bradish says Wednesday’s announcement by the Alaska Energy Authority, or AEA, is good news for all four Railbelt utilities, because the grants will reduce power outages and help hold down electricity costs.
“This work would really need to be done regardless of this funding,” she said. “So, it's a real boon for us to be able to have received these grants to perform the work.”
AEA Executive Director Curtis Thayer says the projects are needed to upgrade and repair aging parts of the Railbelt grid built around the time Ronald Reagan was president.
“In Alaska, we have very old transmission lines between Anchorage and Fairbanks, built 40 years ago,” he said.
Thayer said the grants are the first of a handful that AEA will award to Alaska utilities this year, totaling $70 million. The funding comes from the 2021 Infrastucture Investment and Jobs Act, along with state match funding. He says AEA awarded the first grant to Golden Valley, because the projects outlined in its applications were important and shovel-ready.
“They were quality applications and definitely there was a need, and the funding matched the need,” he added.
Intertie maintenance, upgrades
The $20.9 million grant package will pay for three projects, the largest is a $10.3 million upgrade on a stretch of the Alaska Intertie. That’s one of two high-voltage transmission lines that connects Golden Valley to Palmer-based Matanuska Electric Association, Anchorage-based Chugach Electric and Homer Electric, on the Kenai Peninsula.
Bradish says the project will reduce outages and transmission-line damage caused by heavy snow.
“It's important to keep those things in mind, especially when we're talking about extreme weather events, like the storm that we experienced in October that cost our members over $8 million, she said.”
Golden Valley will do some similar upgrades on transmission lines in its service area that run from Fairbanks to Fox and Ester and between Fort Wainwright and Salcha. That’s part of a nearly $9 million project that’ll also include relocating transmission-line poles that run through permafrost-ridden areas, to keep them poles from sinking.
“It was constructed in the ’60s and ’70s,” she said, “so this is a really good example of work that would just need to be done, regardless.”
The third project is the $1.7 million Alaska Railbelt Synchrophasor and Disturbance Reporting System.
“It will provide the rail belt transmission operators with high-speed automated analysis of data,” she said, “from the tip of the Kenai Peninsula all the way up into GVEA’s service territory.”
Bradish says the system will provide real-time critical data on electrical currents and voltages for the utilities. That’ll help keep power flowing smoothly and reduce damage to the grid.
“It really is aiming to reduce systemwide disturbances based on being able to look at that data more quickly, she added.”
Thayer, with the Alaska Energy Authority, says the agency will award a second round of grants to Alaska utilities later this year.
