Railbelt grid's tariff and finance subcommittees meet July 9 behind closed doors

Two Railbelt Transmission Organization subcommittees advising on a proposed tariff that would reallocate transmission costs among Railbelt utilities and system users will meet July 9 without public access. The Tariff Subcommittee convenes at 2 p.m. and the Finance Subcommittee at 3 p.m., both via teleconference hosted at the Alaska Energy Authority in Anchorage. Public notices state plainly: "Per the RTO's Bylaws, the RTO's open meeting provisions do not apply to subcommittee meetings, therefore this meeting is not open to members of the public."

The subcommittees advise on the RTO's proposed Open Access Transmission Tariff, which the organization filed with the Regulatory Commission of Alaska (RCA) on July 1, meeting a deadline set by House Bill 307. That legislation created the RTO specifically to establish a non-discriminatory open access transmission tariff. The proposed tariff would replace wheeling fees with a cost-allocation mechanism that distributes backbone transmission costs among system users based on the benefit each derives; under it, the RTO would collect fees from system users and reimburse utilities for operating and maintaining their share of the backbone system. Railbelt utilities, system users, and ratepayers are all affected because the tariff governs how those costs are recovered.

The RCA previously suspended an earlier RTO tariff filing for investigation and opened a public comment period from September 15 to 29, requiring the RTO to respond directly to all comments, a step the RCA described as unusual and intended to expand public engagement. Consumer groups including RAPA and AKPIRG have been active in that docket, underscoring that ratepayer voices exist outside the RTO's internal process. The RTO's own Governance Committee bylaws acknowledge the tension: "The Committee recognizes that Alaska public policy favors transparency and public access to information. The Committee desires to conduct its business in public." That language does not extend to subcommittees.

The RTO's position is that subcommittees hold no binding authority; they can only advise or make recommendations to the Governance Committee, which does hold open public meetings. The RCA, for its part, has adopted procedures in prior tariff proceedings that expanded public comment opportunities and required the RTO to respond directly to stakeholder input.