Energy

Anchorage weighs Eklutna water deals after utilities decline to back its bid for a vote

Anchorage tied its Eklutna water deals to Chugach and MEA backing its bid for a hydro vote. They declined, and the mayor wants the deals approved without it.

by Walter AlaskaNews4w ago2 min read

Gasoline pushes U.S. prices up as Alaska diesel runs 61% above a year ago

U.S. prices rose 0.6% in September, more than half of it from gas. In Alaska, the bigger number is diesel: $2.48 a gallon more than a year ago.

by Alaska News4w ago2 min read

Golden Valley lifts first energy emergency alert, warns supply problems will continue

Golden Valley's first-ever energy emergency is over. A unit outage Monday left the co-op with one generator of backup; by Wednesday it was back to normal.

by Alaska News1mo ago3 min read

Kodiak Electric's 20-year Coast Guard energy contract is worth $31.3 million

Kodiak's electric co-op will upgrade the Coast Guard base's heat, lights and water over 20 years. Price tag: $31.3 million. Competition: none possible.

by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read

Follows: Kodiak Electric signs 20-year contract to upgrade energy systems at Coast Guard Base Kodiak

Murkowski joins bipartisan call for Trump to reverse decision allowing Russian diesel imports

Trump says Putin agreed to send diesel. Murkowski and six other senators say letting it in runs counter to a ban Congress passed 100-0 in 2022.

by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago3 min read

AIDEA takes over governor's energy conference with up to $400,000

Gov. Dunleavy leaves office in December. The energy conference he founded stays on: AIDEA's board approved up to $400,000 to run it in Anchorage in 2027.

by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min readFrom Sep 22

White House restates $150 million for Beluga-Healy line; source of $268 million share unclear

The White House says DOE "will invest $150 million" in the Beluga-Healy line; DOE said "up to." Who covers the other $268 million is still unclear.

by Melinda Communities.News1mo ago1 min read

Railbelt-wide unified dispatch likely needs legislation, REAP analyst says

Running the Railbelt's power plants as one system would save money, a REAP analyst says, but it probably takes a policy push to make it happen.

by Melinda Communities.News1mo ago2 min read

Kodiak Electric signs 20-year contract to upgrade energy systems at Coast Guard Base Kodiak

The Coast Guard's Kodiak base signed up the local electric co-op for a 20-year energy upgrade deal, with $2 million to start. Shutdowns already delayed it.

by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min readFrom Sep 30

Vance announces Railbelt transmission project at Fairbanks rally

The Trump administration will fund up to $150 million toward a 223-mile transmission line on Alaska's Railbelt grid, Vice President JD Vance announced Monday.

by Maggie AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read

Anchorage Assembly to consider $1.7 million to design fix for Girdwood's drinking water well

Girdwood's main drinking water well lets surface water in, so it needs a treatment fix. The Assembly may add $1.7 million to design it Oct. 6.

by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read

Kodiak Assembly member says Navy would back grid funding bid tied to Spruce Cape project

A classified Navy project at Spruce Cape could use 70% of Kodiak's power, an Assembly member says, and the Navy may back a grid funding bid.

by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read

Anchorage sets Oct. 28 open house on Eklutna pumped storage options

Anchorage holds an open house Oct. 28 on two dam designs for Eklutna Lake, where the city gets 90 percent of its drinking water and faces a 2027 deadline on pumped storage.

by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read

Seoul protested U.S. Alaska LNG announcement, says investment remains under review

White House officials and Alaska leaders announced $50 billion-plus in Korean money for Alaska LNG. Seoul says it agreed only to review it, and protested.

by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago4 min read

Anchorage consent agenda carries $2.4 million in sludge hauling contracts

Two sludge hauling contracts worth up to $2.4 million with Around the Clock Pumping LLC, the lowest bidder on both routes, are on the Anchorage Assembly's consent agenda Tuesday.

by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read

Feds select Anchorage company to drill geothermal test well on Augustine volcano

The feds picked an Anchorage company to drill a geothermal test well on Augustine, the Cook Inlet volcano. Tapping a volcano for power: very Alaska.

by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min readFrom Sep 21

Seward survey respondents favor a local cooperative to run the city's electric utility

Most Seward survey takers want a local co-op to run the city's electric utility. The math hinges on a hydro project Chugach Electric also wants.

by Melinda Communities.News1mo ago3 min read

Murkowski bill would modify and continue Snettisham's exemption from federal hydropower licensing

Sen. Lisa Murkowski introduced a bill Thursday to keep Juneau's Snettisham hydroelectric plant exempt from federal licensing rules, protecting the facility that supplies 70% of the city's power

by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read

Kotzebue water system exceeds federal lead action level after two of 10 homes test high

Two of 10 Kotzebue homes tested above the federal lead action level. The city is testing more homes and says to run taps until cold before drinking.

by Alaska News1mo ago2 min read

MEA lays out how rolling outages would work if Southcentral runs short of gas this winter

MEA's plan if the gas runs short: nine groups, 30 to 45 minutes dark apiece, turns every few hours. Step six of six, and the co-op hopes to never get there.

by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago3 min read

Global refinery disruptions widened fuel margins in 2026, and rural Alaska's barge fuel cost more

Galena's utility paid 29% more per gallon for this year's barge fuel, and St. Paul paid about $7.55. Summer's dip in oil prices came after the fuel was bought.

by Cale Green1mo ago4 min read

Nome utility board member says new housing project's septic units will need heavy upkeep

New Nome housing will run on above-ground septic units with grinders, pumps and UV lights. A utility board member says they will need a lot of babysitting.

by Bill AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read

Public comment is open on Cook Inlet subsea data-center plan

Comments close Nov. 2 on a proposed tidal-powered subsea data center off Nikiski. The permit would authorize study, not construction.

by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read

MEA surveys members on potential data center development

MEA is polling members about data centers while the state weighs handing 20,000 acres in its territory to AIDEA for a plan that lists data centers.

by Melinda Communities.News1mo ago2 min read

Three Homer Electric generators failed at once, and hydro covered the gap

Three of Homer Electric's generators failed at once in August. It bought hydro to cover, from a dam whose lines cannot carry its full output.

by Alaska News1mo ago2 min read

The line that powers Petersburg would leave federal license oversight

Petersburg gets its power over an 80-mile line from Tyee Lake. The agency running it wants that line out of its federal license, the second this year.

by Maggie AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read

Fairbanks diesel hit a record $6.70 a gallon this weekend

Fairbanks diesel hit a record $6.70 a gallon, up from $4.17 a year ago. That's the fuel that hauls everything else up the highway to the Interior.

by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read

A Southeast power agency seeks to free a line from federal terms

SEAPA wants to pull a 30-mile transmission line out of its Swan Lake hydro license before a 40-year relicensing, keeping the line but shedding the terms.

by Maggie AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read

A magnitude 6.5 quake hit west of Nikolski, the third big one this year

A magnitude 6.5 quake hit west of Nikolski with no tsunami and no expected damage — the third magnitude-6 quake near the village this year.

by Maggie AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read

A fishing advocate warns Kenai over an undersea Cook Inlet data center

A fishing advocate told the Kenai council the federal application for an undersea data center off Nikiski has no thermal modeling, in endangered beluga habitat.

by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read

Follows: Massachusetts firm seeks study permit for a 66-pod undersea data center in Cook Inlet

Fairbanks companies seek a year-round water right for the pool at Circle Hot Springs

Two Fairbanks companies want a year-round water right at Circle Hot Springs — about 8.6 million gallons a day, on an application pending since 2020.

by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read

Talkeetna residents ask Mat-Su commission to oppose Front Street water tank site

Talkeetna's wells have too much arsenic. The borough's fix would clear 1.4 acres of woods with a bear trail through it, and neighbors want another site.

by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read

A dam licensed near Juneau 10 years ago still isn't built, and its deadline just passed

A dam licensed near Juneau a decade ago was never built, its construction deadline just expired, and the local utility says the town doesn't need the power.

by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min readFrom Sep 8

Follows: Juneau Hydropower asks FERC for two more years to start Sweetheart Lake dam

Bethel's water plant has been sending filter backwash onto open ground

Water flushed from Bethel's treatment filters has been running onto the tundra instead of into the sewer lagoon. The city does not say for how long.

by Melinda Communities.News2mo ago2 min read

Ketchikan council to vote on seventh amendment to water consulting deal

Ketchikan avoided a $70 million filtration plant by proving its mountain-lake water meets federal conditions for filtration avoidance.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

Matanuska Electric posts its list of $451,000 in unclaimed capital credits

Matanuska Electric says more than $451,000 in capital credits sit unclaimed by current and former members, with one owed roughly $15,000.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min readFrom Sep 1

A $2 fix could cut $49,944 a year off Bethel's fitness center energy bill

Two dollars. That is what Bethel would have to spend to cut nearly $50,000 a year off the fitness center energy bill, according to an audit.

by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

Massachusetts firm seeks study permit for a 66-pod undersea data center in Cook Inlet

A Delaware company formed in January wants to put 66 data center pods and 350 tidal turbines on the floor of Cook Inlet. Comment closes Nov. 2.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min readFrom Sep 4

Fairbanks' utility is writing down when it would start turning off your power

Fairbanks' electric co-op is writing rules for when it would start rotating outages. It has run short on reserve power 236 of the last 250 days.

by Melinda Communities.News2mo ago2 min read

Metlakatla wins federal money to protect the hydro plant its island runs on

Metlakatla, Alaska's only Native reserve, gets $166,000 to protect the aging hydro plant its island depends on — a power source strained as its lakes run low.

by Melinda Communities.News2mo ago2 min read