PETERSBURG – The CEO of Southeast Alaska’s wholesale power provider stopped by an assembly meeting on Monday to update Petersburg on its projects and financial wins so far this year.
Trey Acteson, CEO of Southeast Alaska Power Agency, the primary electric provider for Wrangell, Petersburg and Ketchikan, explained multiple ways on how the organization is cutting costs, mostly from fighting strict regulatory proposals.
“As many of you know,” Acteson said, “I’m pretty active in that arena.”
SEAPA saved $30,000 annually when the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission rolled back a 71 percent increase in land use fees to 25 percent, coming after the agency partnered with others to fight it. FERC also intended to, Acteson said, make a hydro plant license good for only 30 years. Acteson said he lobbied against it in Washington D.C., and, as a result, it was increased to 40 years.
“Which is huge,” Acteson said. “Re-licensing is several million dollars and about a seven-year process. So, you can imagine you just get done with one process, you’re almost starting the next process.”
The agency, Acteson said, is expanding its reservoir at the Swan Lake project, saving $250,000 in revenue and offsetting about $1.1 million in diesel generation in Ketchikan, which flips from hydro in cold weather.
Acetson said the agency spends about $500,000 on insurance premiums every year, but recently there’s been relief in expenses. Earthquake deductibles were lowered from $500,000 to $100,000, while transformer deductibles were lowered from $250,000 to $100,000. Further, the agency extended its insurance coverage up to $5 million for power transporting submarine cables.
“Which I know you guys are very interested in because submarine cables supply power here,” he said. “It will fail eventually, so I think that was a huge benefit to the northern communities here, and we look forward to having that additional coverage.”
Acteson added: “And one final note on all that is that it was at no additional cost.”
He went on to discuss water levels at each reservoir.
“Everybody always asks ‘where we at on water?’” Acteson said. “And we’re short.”
The Swan Lake reservoir has seen a dip in elevation levels from about 311 feet in January to 279 feet in mid-March, and the minimum is 271.5 feet, according to a graph provided by Acteson. At Tyee Lake, levels went from 1,360 feet in January to about 1,295 feet in mid-March, with a minimum of 1,250.
In the meantime, the recent savings are freeing-up improvements to infrastructure and technology between the two plants. At Swan Lake, the agency is upgrading one of its three employee houses, upgrading security cameras, upgrading touch screens in its control room and renewing its eroding bulkhead.
Barges are prohibited from coming in and out at Tyee, Acteson said, so the agency is working to better marine access for when it brings heavy objects in, also to allow for medical emergency evacuations.
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