AEA pegs Cook Inlet subsea power cable at $413 million

A single transmission path links Kenai and Anchorage power supplies, a vulnerability the Alaska Energy Authority says a subsea cable would fix. AEA told state lawmakers Thursday the $413 million Cook Inlet PowerLink could be finished by 2032, half the money federal and half not yet raised.

AEA CEO and Executive Director Curtis W. Thayer presented the project, known as CIPLink, to the House and Senate Resources committees. He described a cable that "provides critical backup redundancy for Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson" and gives utilities more flexibility "as Southcentral Alaska faces uncertainty regarding future natural gas supplies and costs." The Railbelt system it would serve carries power to 75 percent of Alaskans.

The 38-mile line would run from Nikiski on the Kenai Peninsula to Beluga, with converter sites near Anchorage. AEA calls it the state's first high-voltage direct current project, used for long undersea links because alternating current loses too much over distance. The presentation describes the cable as "capable of delivering up to 200 MW of bidirectional power flow." AEA lists the project as shovel-ready, with preliminary engineering complete.

The Energy Department award, signed Aug. 5, 2024, runs through Aug. 31, 2032, the completion year AEA gave. It obligates $206,105,546 against a matching non-federal share of the same amount, $412.2 million in all. Fiscal 2027 state budget material says AEA still must raise substantial matching funds. Of the federal share, $575,285 has been drawn, or 0.3 percent.

The award is not for the cable alone. It funds the Railbelt Innovation Resiliency Project, whose federal description adds parallel lines and battery energy storage "along with the high voltage direct current (HVDC) submarine cable."

State documents say permits covered reconnaissance work in Cook Inlet this summer, and a March AEA presentation said environmental routing was complete and the project was moving into detailed design, permitting and procurement.

CIPLink is one of four projects AEA presented Thursday, with the $400 million Bradley Lake expansion targeted for 2031, $173.9 million in Sterling-Soldotna-Quartz Creek upgrades targeted for 2030, and the proposed 618 MW Susitna-Watana Hydroelectric Project, estimated at about $8.7 billion in 2026 dollars.