Juneau cruise dock electrification estimate reaches $111.5 million at 35% design

Electrifying Juneau's two city-owned downtown cruise berths would cost $111,482,193.70, according to a 35% design estimate H3 Engineering Solutions will present to the Docks and Harbors Board on Thursday, Sept. 24, at 5 p.m. in Assembly Chambers. Neither the Alaska Steamship dock nor the Cruise Terminal dock currently has a shore power system.

The estimate rests on $73.3 million in materials and labor, a 20% contingency of $14.7 million, 10% mobilization, environmental permitting, construction management, and $3,666,079 for project management and remaining design fees. The largest single line item is $10.8 million for new pile-supported dock structure.

The design would tap Alaska Electric Light & Power's existing 69 kV transmission line above South Franklin Street and run a short overhead extension downhill to a new substation on the lower slopes of Mount Roberts. That site sits next to demolished historic fuel tanks where crews already completed environmental remediation. Two transformers would deliver dual 6.6 kV and 11 kV power, with space reserved for a third to serve a future Huna Totem dock. Each berth would get a trench-mounted movable outlet carriage and a mobile cable-management crane, stored in a dock garage over the winter.

Juneau has done this once before. Princess Cruises, AEL&P and the city completed the world's first cruise ship shore power facility at Franklin Dock in 2001. That program has produced about $9 million in COPA credits subsidizing residents' electricity costs over 20 years. A 2016 feasibility study and a 2022 electrification study developed cost estimates for the two newer berths. In 2024, the city granted AEL&P $1.8 million to contract H3 for design work through 2027. Earlier city budgets had estimated construction for both berths at about $24.9 million. At a Resource Development Council luncheon in June, Renee Reeve said, "this is the 25th anniversary of ShorePower in Juneau, Alaska. We were the first in the world to install ShorePower."

The 2022 study also found Juneau has surplus hydropower to serve docked ships roughly 25% of the time, a limit that bears on how often the new infrastructure could be used. City documents report AEL&P has raised concerns about the burden of connecting and disconnecting each ship, about system stability and about impacts on ratepayers.

The briefing is a discussion item, not an action item. Public comment follows the presentation.