Projects

Chugach operates a substation on lots 17 and 18, Block 3, Girdwood Original Townsite. This substation has been in operation since the early 1970s. Plans for an expansion of this station in the 1990s led to the purchase of Lots 19 to 22 adjacent to, and north of the existing station. The upgrade plans were postponed, when the availability of natural gas slowed the growth of demand for electric energy in the community.

Condition and age of equipment installed in the station now make it necessary to replace the low voltage (25kV) open-air switchgear as well as the control enclosure. In order to accommodate future load growth and increase service reliability, Chugach plans to install 25kV switchgear in a metal enclosure. It will also include the controls for the high voltage (115kV) switchgear and other auxiliary equipment, such as batteries, chargers and low voltage power panels.

Load forecasts indicate that a second transformer will need to be installed between 2020 and 2025. At that time, the existing high voltage switching arrangement will not be adequate to maintain reliable service. It will be upgraded to allow termination of a looped 115kV circuit with a circuit breaker to separate line sections and taps to 2 transformers. This will occupy most of 5 (Lots 17 to 21) of the 6 lots. A wooden fence and planting of shrubs on the exposed sides of the station will enhance the appearance.

The present zoning of the additional area required for the full build out of the substation is gC-3, which allows the substation upgrade under a conditional use permit issued by the Municipality of Anchorage.

In 2009 Chugach evaluated alternative sites for a substation. In early 2010 Chugach presented the results of that study to the Girdwood Board of Supervisors. Chugach is seeking a Conditional Use Permit for the project on land it owns adjacent to the existing substation.

Schedule

Proposed Development

• Phase 1 Substation Layout Figure 6B
• Phase 2 Substation Layout Figure 6D
• Phase 2 Substation Elevation

On March 1, 2005, the Anchorage Assembly adopted certain revisions to Section 21.90, Utility Distribution Facilities, of the Anchorage Municipal Code. These revisions required an electric utility to "include as part of its annual capital improvement plan, a five-year undergrounding program." In each of the years of this program the electric utility shall plan on expending "at least two percent of a three-year average of its annual gross retail revenues derived from utility service connections within the municipality". This requirement means that Chugach Electric Association (Chugach) is required to spend approximately $3.2 million annually to underground existing overhead facilities. Over expenditures or under expenditures may be carried over as an adjustment to the following year's obligation.

In the development of the five-year undergrounding program the electric utility is allowed to choose which existing lines to underground. Specifically, priorities for the program "shall be based on undergrounding in conjunction with the utility's essential system improvements and then by target areas."

The undergrounding plan lists the projects in Chugach's five-year undergrounding program. Overall, the plan calls for $16,350,000 to be expended on undergrounding existing overhead lines from 2012 to 2016, for an average of $3,270,000 annually.

The projects were chosen taking into account Chugach's overall system needs and consideration of the designated target areas. The inclusion of a project within this plan does not guarantee that the project will be constructed in the designated year.

In 2007, the Chugach Electric Association, Inc. (Chugach) Cooper Lake Hydroelectric Project was issued a new operating license (Project: FERC No. 2170). The Project is located near Cooper Landing on the Kenai Peninsula and provides power to southcentral Alaska as part of Chugach's generating system. The first operating license for the Project was issued by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on May 1, 1957. The new 50-year license is scheduled to expire in 2057.

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