SEAPA holds regular board meeting in Petersburg

PETERSBURG – For its September regular board meeting, Southeast Alaska Power Authority (SEAPA) board members met in Petersburg earlier this week. The board heard updates concerning the company’s ongoing efforts to catalog hydro sites in Southeast.

This summer, a consultant flight crew moved personnel and equipment to remote areas, including lakes that have never had bathymetric studies conducted on them. The process reveals underwater topography while recording the depth of the lakes. Falls Lake and Scenery Lake were both mapped and recorded. Similar surveys were also done locally at Cabin Creek and City Creek, both municipal watersheds.

The goal is to build a database for the State that will contain power and energy values, possible construction costs, environmental reviews and examine potential hydro sites located from Metlakatla to Kake. The project is funded by State grant money, so none of the expense is coming from SEAPA rate payers.

“Ultimately this information would be used to prioritize the sites, in other words would make the most economic sense,” says Joe Nelson, Petersburg Municipal Power and Light Superintendent and SEAPA board member.

The board also extended the contract of Sunrise Aviation (SA), located in Wrangell and also owns Pacific Wings in Petersburg. SA will continue to provide air transportation between Wrangell and the Tyee Lake hydroelectric facility. The previous contract between SA and SEAPA expired in late-August, and the renewed contract will last five years.

“Wrangell is the hub for getting personnel and supplies to Tyee,” Nelson says. “This new contract, basically is for the same rate that has been in effect for the last couple years.”

The board also discussed lowering SEAPA user rates. Nelson says several board members were motivated to look at lowering the rates, because for the past four or five years SEAPA has had significant rebates due to positive financial performance. The rebates to communities, like Petersburg and Wrangell, essentially lower the cost of wholesale power. Nelson says some board members were advocating lowering rates rather than having rebates each year, but no action was taken on the topic, for now.

“When we prepare the budget for next year, we will be looking hard at the rates and potentially lowering them,” Nelson says.