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2013

December 13, 2013

Fitch Ratings has upgraded Chugach Electric Association’s financial rating to “A” from its previous “A-“.  It also provides an outlook of “Stable” for Chugach. 

Fitch cited the following four primary factors that contributed to the upgrade:

December 12, 2013

Chugach Electric Association is donating more than 6,000 pounds of turkey to 15 different local charitable organizations.  In previous years, Chugach has made similar donations to local charitable organization.

Chugach will deliver the 450 turkeys to local charities Dec. 11 and 12.

September 24, 2013

The most fuel-efficient power plant in Alaska has been selected for an award from a trade industry publication.  The Southcentral Power Project – a new natural gas-fired power plant jointly owned by Chugach Electric Association and Municipal Light & Power – has been designated one of five 2013 “Top Plants” by POWER magazine. The magazine and its related publications are geared to the power generation market.

August 30, 2013

Project work will cause short outages for customers of Chugach Electric Association on the northern Kenai Peninsula on Sept. 3 and Sept. 10.  Outages will affect Portage, Whittier, Hope, Summit Lake and Sunrise. The outages are necessary for contractors to safely complete upgrades to the Hope Substation project and to replace a faulty circuit switcher at the Portage Substation.

August 20, 2013

Chugach has planned an outage that will affect approximately 115 metered locations in Tyonek and Granite Point. The outage is scheduled for 12:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 20.

Chugach is working on a project to relocate a section of distribution line in the Tyonek area. Thirteen of fifteen new poles have been completed. To install the remaining two poles, the existing distribution line needs to be de-energized allowing crews to safely install the poles and re-route the line.

July 29, 2013

Effective July 23, 2013, Sherri McKay-Highers was appointed Chief Financial Officer and Vice President, Finance and Administration for Chugach Electric Association.  Prior to this appointment, McKay-Highers was serving as Manager, Budget and Financial Reporting, guiding Chugach’s financial planning and reporting responsibilities.  She has worked at Chugach for more than 15 years and has held various accounting management positions.

June 18, 2013

Project work will cause short outages for customers of Chugach Electric Association on the northern Kenai Peninsula during the week of June 24.  The outages are necessary to allow temporary, taller structures to be installed adjacent to the Hope Substation to permit a rebuild of that facility later this year.  In order to safely install the new poles, a section of the transmission line needs to de-energized and be taken out of service for several days.

May 20, 2013

Chugach Electric Association has issued a Request for Proposals for renewable and zero-carbon energy projects.  The RFP is open during a rolling review period that runs through March 2014.

May 17, 2013

David Gillespie and Susan Reeves were elected to 3-year terms on the Chugach Electric Association board of directors.  Election results were announced at the cooperative utility’s annual meeting Thursday evening, May 17. P.J. Hill and Trudy Sobocienski were also candidates in the election.

About 12 percent of the Chugach members of record voted, with about 31 percent of the votes cast via the Internet.

Gillespie is the CEO of The Aleut Corporation. Reeves is an attorney and the managing member of Reeves Amodio . She has served on the board since 2010.

May 9, 2013

A grand opening ceremony was held today for the new Southcentral Power Project.  SPP is an efficient, gas-fired power plant built by Chugach Electric Association and Municipal Light & Power.  It is the state’s most efficient gas-fired thermal power plant serving electric utility customers.  

April 30, 2013

Chugach Electric Association has launched an innovative energy efficiency pilot program.  The program is designed to inform residential members about their energy use and assist them in taking steps toward reducing energy consumption.  The pilot program is funded by the Alaska Energy Authority’s “Biggest State to Biggest Saver” grant from the U.S. Department of Energy.

March 29, 2013

Chugach Electric Association has scheduled a transmission line outage that will cut power to customers in Indian, Bird, Girdwood, Portage and Whittier for a short time early Saturday morning. The outage is expected to be approximately 3 hours long, beginning at 3:30 a.m. on Saturday, March 30. 

The outage is necessary to make emergency repairs to a transmission structure in Powerline Pass. A project currently underway to rebuild a 15-mile section of the 115-kilovolt transmission line in Turnagain Pass prevents energizing the communities from generation on the Kenai Peninsula.

February 7, 2013

After 22 months of construction, the new Southcentral Power Project is now under utility control.  As of 11:59 p.m. on Jan. 31, Chugach Electric Association accepted “care, custody and control” from SNC-Lavalin Constructors, the contractor hired to build the new power plant for two Anchorage-area utilities. "I'm very proud of the work by Chugach staff and managers to bring this project to fruition on behalf of the two utilities and the thousands of consumers they serve," said Janet Reiser, chair of the Chugach Board of Directors.