Chugach Electric: 2025 Year In Review

It is no surprise that the biggest topic was the uncertainty around gas supply that affects reliability, cost, and planning. We had countless meetings and sessions and presentations on strategies and solutions to solve the gas issue that's confronting us. We have worked really hard on this challenge. We have agreements in place for gas storage. We're working through short-term importation.

So we have to figure out, you know, where the gas is gonna get imported to, which terminal, and then who we're gonna buy the gas from. And the timing of it is such that we have to move very quickly on this. So that our members do not have to worry about whether their lights are gonna turn on and to ensure that their power bills remain low and that their power supply remains reliable. And once we can put that to bed, we can move on to what really excites me, and that is diversifying our generation portfolio, which is gonna mean hydroelectric, wind, solar, and other means of generating power instead of having to import gas. What we look at for generation for the next 30, 50, 100 years, and there's still a lot of opportunities up in Alaska to find that answer, and I look forward to working with the board on that and staff and doing that.

At the end of every discussion we have, we're constantly thinking about a handful of things. Are we serving our members? Are we keeping the lights on as affordably as possible? Are we meeting them where their priorities are at? Are we keeping our employees safe and challenged?

And are we being a good community partner? And are we being innovative and growing? The milestones, or at least the accomplishments that I see for this year, One is just kind of completion of the merger or the acquisition of MLNP. We've got the buildings and we've moved everybody onto one campus. That's been fantastic.

The other one that I believe that's, I observed, and that is the renegotiation of all the union contracts, the labor contracts. It had been, I think, nearly a couple of decades since renegotiation of those contracts. Mm-hmm. In order to have reliable power, we have to have reliable staff. I'm very proud of the staff that we do have, but it's important that we continue to compensate our staff adequately, to provide good working conditions, and to make sure that they're treated as the professionals that they are.

A handful of projects, we moved to remote operations of our Beluga Power Plant, which saved us money and brought our employees back on site. We also were able to combine our North Campus and South Campus freeing up space and land that we can now utilize more smartly and bringing our team all together. The milestone that felt like an accomplishment to me was the adoption of our own Integrated Resource Plan. That's a really important tool for how we put together the long-term strategy for generation to ensure that we are sustainable, affordable, and reliable for generations to come. I think getting the contract relet to finish the Bird to Gerd line extension, the 115-kV line extension coming up from the Kenai, a really important project for a bunch of reliability reasons.

And I think staff did a really good job getting that kind of moved forward and going. For me, the community solar stood out. It gives members a new way to interact and support causes they believe in. And I think it's an important step step toward a more flexible, member-driven system. The reason why it's such a milestone is because staff thought creatively about how to get it done.

And even when they hit a potential roadblock, they really thought creatively about how to get it done. As a board member, I appreciate that. I know it's something that a large number of our members wanted to see. And now more creative thinking is occurring to how we expand on that project. Our employees are getting more tools to be safe and enjoy their jobs.

And our utility, Chugach, is able to be more innovative in the services we offer and grow to meet the demand in our community. The character trait that I bring to the board that's a little unique is probably my operational experience because I was at Chugach for 9 years in operations, and then have worked in the rail belt for another 30 years. I have a strong focus on long-term strategy and what every decision we make and discuss in the boardroom today, what impact that will have on us in 10 or 20, 30 years. The character that I bring is I'm incredibly curious and I'm really comfortable asking difficult questions. So I'm a really thorough conversationalist on the board.

I really want to know, um, all of the aspects of the issues and how our members are gonna be impacted. I've always been an advocate for renewables. I think that's the future. I think there's a realistic limitation to how many renewables we can put onto the grid, but I guess my tenacity in promoting that future for renewable energy is probably the biggest asset I bring to the board. I have a broad perspective on the community.

Our members are this community, whether it's the municipality of Anchorage, Cooper Landing, out to Beluga, I really try and think expansively about where our members live, what their neighborhood community feels like, and how our operations affect them.

Thank you.