Alaska energy authority faces a $410 million gap for two Railbelt grid projects

The Alaska Energy Authority's board was asked Thursday to make $142.3 million in state money for a new power cable under Cook Inlet its top request to the Legislature, part of about $410 million the agency still needs to line up for two major projects on the Railbelt grid.

The board was also asked to let the authority negotiate and accept up to $150 million in federal money for a new transmission line from Beluga to Healy. That project would still need another $268 million that hasn't been lined up.

Both lines would add a second path for electricity on the Railbelt, the grid that runs from the Kenai Peninsula through Anchorage to Fairbanks.

The Cook Inlet PowerLink would run a 38-mile cable under the inlet between the Kenai Peninsula and the Anchorage and Mat-Su area. Today, one line links them, which the authority calls "a critical single point of failure." The cable would carry 100 megawatts either way at first, with room to grow to 200.

The authority puts the cable's cost at $413 million. A $206.5 million federal grant covers half, but only if it's matched dollar for dollar. About $64.2 million in state money and Bradley Lake bond proceeds is already lined up, according to a staff memo. The $142.3 million request would fill the rest of the match.

The work is still early. The authority has spent or committed about $5.6 million so far and is still surveying the seafloor route. It's aiming to finish in December 2031, and the federal grant requires the cable to be done by August 2032.

The Beluga-Healy line would run 223 miles and serve about three-quarters of Alaskans and seven military installations, including Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Eielson Air Force Base and Fort Wainwright, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. The department puts a preliminary estimate of its cost at $418 million.

The department's Oct. 6 letter to the authority says the project has been selected for negotiations, and that the department "has no financial obligation" until an agreement is signed. The White House has said the department will invest the money.

The proposed resolution on the Healy line would have the authority's executive director come up with a plan to pay for the rest. The authority's project page says that could include its own financing, state money, private partners or other grants.

Whether the state puts up the $142.3 million is up to the next governor and the Legislature. Curtis Thayer, the authority's executive director, told the board in July that a new administration will submit its own budget in February.