MEA seeks RCA approval to pass gas storage costs to ratepayers

For the first time, Matanuska Electric Association members would pay for natural gas storage the same automatic way they already pay for the gas itself — through a pass-through rider that rides onto monthly bills and floats up or down on its own. It's a small mechanical change with a big tell: the cost of keeping Southcentral Alaska's gas supply secure is now landing directly on household electric bills.

The vehicle is MEA's Cost of Power Adjustment, or COPA — the rider cooperatives use to recover fuel and wholesale-power costs without a full rate case. MEA already trues it up through the year; commission records show the cooperative revising its COPA tariff sheets repeatedly, in filings logged in March 2025, June 2025, and again over December 2025 into January 2026. Tariff revision TA581-18 adds a new element to that machinery: capacity, reservation, and withdrawal charges for storage at Hilcorp Alaska Gas Storage, LLC, a storage-specific entity registered with the Regulatory Commission of Alaska. Because it's a COPA element, the line item will change as underlying storage costs change.

The storage charge rides alongside MEA's extension of firm gas supply with Hilcorp into Contract Year 11, which lifts the maximum daily quantity from 20,000 to 22,000 MMBtu — more gas secured, and the storage to hold it, as Cook Inlet's deliverability tightens.

That pass-through is exactly what drew legislative wariness. Rep. Calvin Schrage told colleagues the RCA exists to make sure costs passed to ratepayers are justified and necessary, and warned that storage and import-facility costs can end up on the customer. Rep. Frank Tomaszewski put the time horizon bluntly: if a utility builds a facility, ratepayers amortize it for 30 years — "everyone on that particular system is going to be paying that."

The RCA must sign off before MEA can collect. Comments closed February 3, with a requested effective date of March 2 — meaning the first question for any current write-up is simple: is this already on the bill?