$206.5 M DOE grant for undersea Alaska line
An Alaska energy agency has accepted a major federal grant to build a submarine transmission line.
Image for illustration purposes.
USA, Alaska: An Alaska energy agency has accepted a federal grant to build a transmission line across Cook Inlet that will allow more renewable energy to be distributed from the Kenai Peninsula into the Railbelt grid. The board of the Alaska Energy Authority accepted a $206.5 million grant from the Department of Energy. The authority must find matching funding to support the grant. The $413 million in total funds will pay for construction of a 38-mile submarine cable across Cook Inlet from roughly Nikiski to Beluga, said Curtis Thayer, executive director of the Alaska Energy Authority.
The line will provide redundancy to the existing power lines that run along overhead towers and increase the transmission capacity by four times. That will allow more power to be transmitted into the grid from the Bradley Lake Hydroelectric Project near Homer, as well as future renewable projects on the Kenai Peninsula. The line must be completed within eight years, and the project is among the largest construction projects proposed in Alaska.
Almost $33 million in matching funding has already been identified. The agency and electric utilities have pledged $20 million of bonding authority, and the state has provided $12.7 million. Additional funding is being pursued and conversations on the topic have been underway with the Legislature and utilities.
The line will have many benefits, commented Chris Rose, executive director of Renewable Energy Alaska Project. As part of the effort, the Legislature must ensure that electric utilities from Homer to Fairbanks employ a unified operating system to dispatch energy efficiently along the entire Railbelt.
Source: govtech.com
#Alaska#Alaska Energy Authority#Department of Energy#DOE#transmission line#undersea line#USA
