Dive Brief:
- The six utilities serving Alaska's so-called Railbelt Region see the need for up to $1 billion in improvements to the region's electric transmission grid.
-
"We can get power through the system, but not always when it is needed," to allow utilities to optimize and run equipment most efficiently, Matanuska Electric Association General Manager Joe Griffith said he said.
-
Should the upgrades occur, there will likely be an agreement among the six utilities for a single system operator to coordinate the dispatch of power.
Dive Insight:
Sixty-five percent of Alaska's population lives in the Railbelt Region. Improving the grid is critical to Alaska's economic growth as it would match $1 billion in new power generation projects. The projects are intended to replace capacity that is more than 30 years old.