Chugach Outlet
September/October 2001, Number 194

	President's report by Bruce Davison Investigating new technologies

Chugach uses an interesting mixture of generation resources to meet the needs of our customers. About 85 percent of the electricity we sell each year comes from burning natural gas, with most of the balance coming from hydroelectric resources.

However, we also are looking at alternative generation technologies. Chugach leads Alaska (and in some areas, the nation) in investigating other ways of producing power, such as fuel cells, microturbines {1146374 Wh} and windmills.

Fuel Cells
Chugach has a great deal of experience with fuel cells. Fuel cells use a chemical - rather than combustion - process to turn fuel such as natural gas into electricity and heat.

Chugach installed and owns the nation's largest commercial fuel cell as one of the power plants on its system. This is a 1-megawatt installation we constructed behind the U.S. Postal Service's Anchorage Mail Handling Facility. The project is sited in the parking lot behind the Post Office near the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport. Chugach constructed the facility using five separate 200-kilowatt units, each fueled by natural gas.

While the USPS building takes most of the power from the project, any power generated that is over and above the facility's needs flows back onto the grid for other customers.

Chugach's fuel cell project also produces hot water that the Postal Service uses to help heat its building.

On the Kenai Peninsula, BP is building a new gas-to-liquids plant. A building at the plant will use a solid-oxide fuel cell to meet a portion of the project's electrical requirements. Once again, the base fuel is natural gas. Chugach is a participant in this fuel cell project too. We secured about a half million dollar grant from one of our national trade organizations to help underwrite the cost of the fuel cell. Chugach will act as the grant administrator. Chugach and other electric cooperatives around the country will have access to the lessons learned from the performance of this fuel cell.

Chugach was also chosen some years back to install and continues to maintain two 200-kw fuel cells at the Alaska National Guard armory at Fort Richardson.

Microturbines
Microturbines - as the name implies - are small power plants that can provide power at a customer's location using turbine technology. Together, Chugach and the Alaska Village Electric Cooperative have been investigating whether this technology makes sense for our customers. For the past year, the two utilities have been evaluating a 28-kw natural gas-fired microturbine that is helping to power AVEC headquarters in Anchorage (AVEC is a retail customer of Chugach). The two utilities will also test a diesel-powered model.

Wind power
Many utilities are tapping the power of the wind and installing machines to generate power without producing any emissions. Since 1997, Chugach has been investigating the idea of adding wind power to the grid as an option for those customers interested in paying a little more on their bill to support such an installation. We have used meteorological packages on temporary towers and masts to collect data at several sites in the greater Anchorage area.

In September, Chugach and Cook Inlet Region, Inc. agreed to jointly fund a $50,000 project to study the feasibility of generating electricity from the wind on Fire Island. CIRI owns three-fourths of the 4,000-acre island. As part of the project, Chugach erected a trio of temporary structures to collect wind and weather information around the clock for up to 18 months.

We have not yet made a decision about whether or not to try to add wind turbines to the Chugach system. We anticipate that wind power would be priced about 20 percent higher than our normal energy.

As you can see, Chugach has been a leader in the investigation of whether alternative generation makes sense for our customers. Many of you have looked to us for help in evaluating your energy alternatives. If you have questions about any of these projects, please call 762-4788.