Initiative to aid Alaska energy affordability

Department of Agriculture (USDA) officials said the agency has enlisted the High Energy Cost Grant program to help offset high energy costs in some of Alaska’s
most remote areas.

USDA Rural Development Rural Utilities Service Administrator Chad Rupe said the effort would provide financial assistance for energy companies, cities, tribes, and entities serving rural communities where annual home energy costs exceed 275 percent of the national average.

“Many rural Alaska communities have some of the highest fuel and energy costs in the nation,” Rupe said. “This funding will help ensure that residents and businesses in remote areas have affordable electricity and heat.”

The Denali Commission is being awarded a $3 million grant to help construct a 300- to 400-kilowatt hydroelectric generating facility at Five Mile Creek in Chitina. MTNT Energy LLC is receiving $2.9 million to replace and relocate the diesel power plant and to upgrade distribution equipment in McGrath. TDX Adak Generating LLC is receiving $3 million to buy and install a diesel gen-set, an emission control system, fuel distribution and storage tanks, and hot water heat exchangers for a heat recovery system at the city hall in Adak. The INN Electric Cooperative, Inc. is receiving just under $1 million to install a standby emergency generator, make lighting upgrades, and installing hydro energy recovery electric heaters at the Iliamna airport serving Nondalton. The City of Teller, population 256, is receiving a $958,000 grant to install a heat recovery jacket on a diesel-fired power generator.

Recovered heat will be delivered to the water treatment plant, the washeteria, the city administration building, and the clinic.