Skagway hydro developer asks for legal review of who could buy Burro Creek power

Jan Wrentmore, owner of Burro Creek Holdings, asked the Municipality of Skagway on Thursday to have the borough's attorney say whom the borough could legally sell power to from a proposed hydroelectric project at Burro Creek.

In a letter to Mayor Hanson and Borough Manager Emily Deach, Wrentmore asked that attorney Robin Brena clarify how the power "can be used by or sold by the Municipality consistent with state law." Brena's answers "will inform all future discussions about the economic viability of the project and any decisions to move forward," the letter says.

The Skagway Assembly is scheduled to decide at its Thursday, Nov. 19 meeting, at 7 pm, whether to direct the borough manager to get that legal review.

The letter ties the timing to a feasibility study by Polarconsult Alaska, now in its final stages. The study will update capacity and cost estimates, review grant and capital funding and assess potential markets.

Polarconsult engineer Joel Groves wrote six questions for Brena. They center on Alaska Power & Telephone, the utility that holds the state certificate of public convenience and necessity in Skagway. The questions ask which markets the borough could serve, sorted into clearly allowed, clearly disallowed and grey area; whether an agreement with AP&T or the borough's status as a municipality would widen them; and at what point the borough would become an electric utility needing its own certificate or a waiver.

The letter lists example markets. Wholesale sales to AP&T are "clearly allowed," it says, but AP&T's current demand is limited and the price much lower than retail. Other options are the borough's own buildings and ports, a separate power system at the docks to supply cruise ships or the state's planned electric ferry, and electric bus charging.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued the borough a preliminary permit on Feb. 20, 2025, running 48 months. The design includes a 10-foot-high diversion dam, a buried pipeline more than two miles long, a powerhouse with two 3.5-megawatt turbines and a 2-mile submarine cable across Lynn Canal to the Ore Dock, with estimated output of 24,800 megawatt-hours a year. The permit only reserves the borough's first priority to apply for a license. It authorizes no construction.

The Assembly voted 6-0 on May 2, 2024, to authorize negotiations for electricity for port shore power. That resolution said Burro Creek Holdings had requested $19.6 million in federal funding for project upgrades and a subsea cable, and that the borough must hold an ownership interest to take federal funding. In June 2024 the Assembly approved a development agreement for a project financed by the borough on the company's land, set to end Dec. 31, 2025 unless extended in writing.

The Assembly approved up to $31,400 for Polarconsult in August 2024 and up to $100,000 for a KPFF shore power study in October 2025. KPFF's final report has not been posted.