Our Projects

Communications upgrades

Within the Anchorage Bowl, communications upgrades are planned at several Chugach substations. The planned work includes the addition or extension of commuinications towers within the substations. Chugach maintains a communications system that uses radio, microwave and telecommunication links to enable data collection and operational control and monitoring of various components of its electric system.

Contact Chugach's Project Manager Paul Johnson at 907-762-4447 or paul_johnson@chugachelectric.com for further information.

Meter Replacement Project

As part of ongoing system improvements, Chugach will be installing new meters over the next five years, starting in the summer of 2015. Chugach's current meters were installed nearly 20 years ago and are nearing the time for replacement. The project will invest in new technology that will help Chugach operate more efficiently and improve outage restoration.

Right-of-Way Clearing Program

In order to provide safe and reliable service to our members, Chugach has a year-round program to remove trees and other vegetation from utility easements. Also commonly called right-of-way clearing, properly maintaining these areas is required by the National Electric Safety Code. Chugach’s program utilizes best practices in vegetation management and has been recognized 17 times as a Tree Line USA utility.

Right Tree, Right Place

Trees and shrubs can help beautify your home and save on energy costs. But you want to make sure to choose ones that won't interfere with utility lines.

Planting evergreens can create a winter windbreak for your home, and planting trees which lose their leaves in the fall can provide shade in the summer while allowing the sun to shine through on short Alaska winter day.

Distribution Facilities Undergrounding Plan 2017 - 2021

On March 1, 2005, the Anchorage Assembly adopted certain revisions to Section 21.07.050, Utility Distribution Facilities, of the Anchorage Municipal Code. These revisions require an electric utility to “include as part of its annual capital improvement plan, a five-year undergrounding program” (21.07.050F1). 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” ((21.07.050G1a). This requirement means that Chugach Electric Association (Chugach) is required to spend approximately $3.6 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 electric utility’s essential system improvements and then by target area” (21.07.050F1).

The following document contains Chugach’s five-year undergrounding program. Overall, the plan calls for $18,000,000 to be expended on undergrounding existing overhead lines from 2017 to 2021, for an average of $3,600,000 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.

Cooper Lake Hydroelectric Project

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.