Legislature(2023 - 2024)BARNES 124
03/26/2024 10:15 AM House ENERGY
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| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| Presentation: the Railbelt Transmission Grid: Now and Future | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
ALASKA STATE LEGISLATURE
HOUSE SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON ENERGY
March 26, 2024
10:18 a.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
Representative George Rauscher, Chair
Representative Tom McKay
Representative Thomas Baker
Representative Stanley Wright
Representative Mike Prax
Representative Calvin Schrage
Representative Jennie Armstrong
MEMBERS ABSENT
All members present
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
PRESENTATION(S): THE RAILBELT TRANSMISSION GRID: NOW AND FUTURE
PREVIOUS COMMITTEE ACTION
No previous action to record
WITNESS REGISTER
GWEN HOLDMANNN, Senior Researcher
Associate Vice Chancellor for Research, Innovation, and Industry
Partnerships
University of Alaska Fairbanks
Fairbanks, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Gave the Railbelt Transmission Grid: Now
and Future presentation.
ACTION NARRATIVE
10:18:21 AM
CHAIR RAUSCHER called the House Special Committee on Energy
meeting to order at 10:18 a.m. Representatives Rauscher, McKay,
Baker, Wright, Prax, Schrage, and Armstrong were present at the
call to order.
^PRESENTATION: THE RAILBELT TRANSMISSION GRID: NOW AND FUTURE
PRESENTATION: THE RAILBELT TRANSMISSION GRID: NOW AND FUTURE
10:19:28 AM
CHAIR RAUSCHER announced that the only order of business would
be the Railbelt Transmission Grid: Now and Future presentation.
10:21:01 AM
GWEN HOLDMANNN, Senior Researcher, Associate Vice Chancellor for
Research, Innovation and Industry Partnerships, University of
Alaska Fairbanks, gave the presentation, titled "The Railbelt
Transmission Grid: Now and Future," [hardcopy included in the
committee packet]. She began on slide 2, which described a
future vision for the Railbelt's transmission grid and its
ability to deliver power to customers on it. She continued to
slide 3, which displayed a historical map of the Railbelt region
of Alaska and gave a brief history of the Railbelt's past
infrastructure projects and plans. She moved to slide 4, which
explained both the political history of the Railbelt and how
problems with the Railbelt have been historically addressed.
10:30:26 AM
MS. HOLDMANN, in response to a question from Chair Rauscher
about why Alaska is not using its power optimally, explained
that the utilities have been working to optimize the current
transmission system, and she used the Golden Valley Electric
Association (GVEA) and the Bradley Lake Hydroelectric System as
examples of utilities companies that are succeeding with the
current system. In response to Representative Prax, she said
that privatization of the Railbelt is a direction that many
people along the Railbelt would like to see happen, and that
would be dependent on the cost-competitive nature of differing
energy projects and generation methods. She noted that future
projects along the Railbelt's transmission line would be
completed by private sector enterprises. To a follow-up
question regarding clean energy tax subsidies, she said that
pertains to planning systems used to construct new projects
along the Railbelt grid.
10:38:28 AM
MS. HOLDMANN resumed the presentation on slide 5, which
explained federal funding opportunities being utilized along the
Railbelt grid. She moved to slide 6, which described the
current series of constraints on development and progress that
the Railbelt grid is experiencing. In response to a question
from Chair Rauscher, she explained that there is a Railbelt
Reliability Council that sets the reliability standard,
coordinates joint planning, and ensures interconnection
protocols for independent utilities that want to use the grid,
and that organization would need more time to determine the
downstream effects of Senate Bill 123, passed during the Thirty-
First Alaska State Legislature. To a second question, she said
that there are limited opportunities for economic dispatch
currently. She described the specific roles each utility along
the Railbelt grid plays in maintaining operations.
10:47:50 AM
MS. HOLDMANN, in response to questions from Representative
McKay, relayed that currently the Railbelt grid serves a bit
over 500,000 people. She said Alaska is different from other
states because of the geographic challenges it faces. She cited
Hawai'i and Iceland as better examples to compare to Alaska's
power grid.
10:50:12 AM
MS. HOLDMANN resumed the presentation on Slide 7, which
described the practical realities that the railbelt grid faces
in its current operation. She moved to slide 8, which
emphasized that the location of a generation source could change
in the future. She continued to slide 9, which outlined three
goals for the railbelt grid to achieve as a whole, as follows
[original punctuation provided]:
1. Eliminate pancaking wheeling rates and establish a
framework for how transmission costs will be recovered
and allocated
2. Create an organization that can oversee, manage and
develop backbone transmission assets and that is
subject to appropriate regulation
3. Re-imagining a planning process that uses a whole-
system approach (transmission, generation, and
distribution)
MS. HOLDMANN, in response to Chair Rauscher, she explained that
the term "pancaking" is used to describe the stacking costs
across different parts of the system together with the fixed
costs of the system. To a second question, she confirmed that
the number figures used in the presentation were current rather
than historic.
10:58:16 AM
MS. HOLDMANN resumed the presentation on slide 10, which gave
ideas as to how the legislature could establish a framework to
recover and allocate the costs of the Railbelt. She moved to
slide 11, which elaborated on the first of the three previously
mentioned goals and continued to slide 12, which explained cost
recovery efforts being made under the Railbelt's current model
of funding and allocation.
11:02:10 AM
MS. HOLDMANN, in response to questions from Representative Prax,
said costs to the ratepayer are about power versus energy value;
energy is the legal metric being used to determine the value and
cost to a ratepayer on the Railbelt. Different users have
different criteria for how they use the grid, she explained, and
emergency calculations would depend on the type of user on the
grid.
11:08:46 AM
MS. HOLDMANN resumed the presentation on slides 13 and 14, both
of which described the second of the three previously mentioned
goals by explaining and giving examples of their application in
other countries. She moved to slide 15, which described the
final of the three previously mentioned goals by outlining the
development of a plan for the entire Railbelt. She concluded
the presentation on slide 16, which gave a final overview of the
three previously mentioned goals for the Railbelt grid.
11:14:45 AM
MS. HOLDMANN, in response to Representative McKay, advised that
power cost equalization (PCE) has been directly tied to the cost
of Cook Inlet Gas and explained how that would correlate with a
higher cost of energy along the Railbelt.
REPRESENTATIVE MCKAY commented that there is a need for the
State to address the military's need for reliable power.
11:20:34 AM
MS. HOLDMANN, in response to a question from Chair Rauscher as
to how a transmission line upgrade would help balance the
initial costs of infrastructure upgrades to the Railbelt grid,
explained that there would be a higher value associated with the
construction of Railbelt assets because of their expected
longevity. She said that there is still a significant need to
de-constrain the current generation points on the Railbelt, and
she shared her belief that the lack of gas in the Cook Inlet
Region is more concerning for home heat generation than for
power generation along the Railbelt grid.
11:24:45 AM
MS. HOLDMANN responded to questions from Representative Prax.
She said that the proposed upgrade wouldn't apply to the
northern part of the system and explained how the upgrade would
affect the south part of the system. She explained that the
current intertie is the limit of the power that GVEA can
purchase, and she shared her hope that upgrades to the northern
part of the system would come along sooner rather than later.
CHAIR RAUSCHER commented that Curtis Thayer of the Alaska Energy
Authority had said that the upgrades are proposed to be complete
between 2030 and 2032.
MS. HOLDMANN responded that the current funding secured through
the grid resilience innovation partnerships (GRIP) program are
more related to the existing projects that need more cashflow.
In response to a question from Representative Prax regarding
phase 2 and 3 of the Railbelt grid's upgrades, she said the
project would move forward whether or not there were federal
funding. She emphasized that it is important for the federal
government to know that the utilities and local governments have
a plan in place to construct and use energy produced by any
given grant.
11:30:58 AM
ADJOURNMENT
There being no further business before the committee, the House
Special Committee on Energy meeting was adjourned at 11:31.
| Document Name | Date/Time | Subjects |
|---|---|---|
| Transmission Overview - House Energy 3-26-24.pdf |
HENE 3/26/2024 10:15:00 AM |
Transmission |