Interior Alaska has been battling expensive electric and heating bills for decades. Our reliance on trucked-in fuel and an aging grid leaves us vulnerable to supply disruptions, but our electric transmission and distribution systems limit the blend of power we can access and prevent efficient integration of low-cost alternatives.
In the past few years, our Interior electric utility secured significant federal awards to help boost our electric transmission and energy storage capacity. These investments are targeted at reducing our energy costs and stabilizing supply.
Funds include $206 million in no-interest loans and grants to Golden Valley Electric Association (GVEA), awarded through a competitive process. The program will help GVEA install a battery energy storage system in Fairbanks, construct 46 miles of new transmission lines, add new substations, and upgrade a critical North Pole substation.
GVEA was also awarded a $100 million loan to help finance a new battery energy storage system and required substation upgrades. Thanks to a partnership with Doyon Ltd., $60 million of that loan is forgivable.
These projects will enable GVEA to provide backup power, improve grid stability, and help integrate low-cost, locally produced clean energy. The projects will benefit ratepayers in the Fairbanks North Star Borough, Nenana, Delta, Clear, Healy, Denali National Park and Cantwell. These projects are also expected to create up to 300 new jobs during construction and support long-term jobs in the communities GVEA serves.
We can’t afford to wait. Fairbanks is the coldest city in the United States. Energy security is a necessity for life in Interior Alaska, and it’s no secret that high energy costs hamper the region’s economic wellbeing.
But there is more at stake than the region’s wellbeing. Alaska is the nation’s Arctic territory. We are the bulwark against Chinese and Russian incursions. Our state plays an outsized role in our national security, and energy security is critical to our military readiness.
Further, there is fierce global competition for energy. In a world with a growing hunger for energy, we have a vision of Alaska as a center of energy innovation. We are already an energy powerhouse — and along with our oil and gas we have ample geothermal, solar, wind and hydropower. With the federal incentives Congress approved, we can move from energy poverty to energy abundance.
You may have heard that some previously approved federal energy awards were “frozen” or at risk of being cancelled. We are glad to report that the GVEA funds have been released, and we thank Sens. Dan Sullivan and Lisa Murkowski and others who advocated to protect GVEA’s awards.
But there is more work to be done. In the Interior and across Alaska, we need major investments to modernize our energy systems and usher in an era of reliable, affordable energy.
President Trump’s Energy Secretary Christopher Wright said in his welcome remarks to U.S. Department of Energy staff: Energy is the enabler of everything that we do. Everything. Energy is not a sector of the economy; it is the sector that enables every other sector. Energy is life.
In Fairbanks and across Alaska, we understand the truth of these remarks. Energy security is the bedrock of economic security and national security–and a springboard for innovation and prosperity.
Please join us in urging our congressional delegation — Sen. Sullivan, Sen. Murkowski and Rep. Begich — to fight to protect energy incentives in the upcoming federal budget reconciliation process and help Alaska to unleash our full potential.
Sam Enoka is a graduate of the University of Alaska Fairbanks and is entrepreneur focusing on cloud computing, energy, finance, technology and innovation.
Lesil McGuire is a former longtime Alaska legislator who helped establish the Emerging Energy Technology Fund to advance energy independence across the state.
Gene Therriault represented Fairbanks and Interior communities in the Alaska Legislature for 17 years and has served as senate president, senior energy adviser to Gov. Sean Parnell, deputy director of the Alaska Energy Authority, and vice president of Golden Valley Electric Authority.
