Rod Rhoades, superintendent at Wrangell Municipal Light & Power, shows the utility's coverage area across the island, which includes almost 27 miles of overhead line and 2.4 miles of underground line.
Rod Rhoades has a sick generator.
It's down for the count after mechanical issues this summer, said the superintendent at Wrangell Municipal Light & Power.
The generator is one of five that provide backup when Wrangell loses its feed from the Tyee Lake hydroelectric station. After Rhoades started in 2018, he brought a fifth generator online in 2020 to "give me some breathing room."
Before that, there would be times when all four generators were running to meet power demand, he said, and for machines, that lack of spare capacity is chancy.
Having Unit No. 5 out, Rhoades said, puts him right back where he started.
He estimates repairs will cost about $500,000.
And while he knows what's wrong, and how to fix it, strong inflation and delays could make the repairs cost more.
The utility department has $3.5 million in the bank, but due to the global supply chain snags it can no longer sit on an estimate from vendors, according to a memo Rhoades sent the borough assembly. And, he said, vendors have repeatedly told the department that they will only hold a materials quote for a week or so, instead of 30 days or more.
"We've never seen that before," he said.
Adding to that is the cost of transporting supplies and equipment, he said.
"It's very, very hard to budget. I recently bought three 15-horsepower electric motors. The total price on that was somewhere around $9,000. By the time that we got them shipped out here, it was another $2,500," Rhoades said.
The utility department is seeking to make repairs to generator No. 5 and add it back to its lineup before the onset of colder temperatures - 20 degrees or below - that would cause a power draw which only five generators could handle.
Rhoades will present his plan for repair to the borough assembly at its Nov. 9 meeting. As soon as the money is approved, he said the department will get to work and hire an expert from Seattle-based Marine Systems. He estimates having the generator fixed by the end of December.
The generator fix is just one item on Rhoades $1.3 million to-do list, which he would like to accomplish over the next two to three years.
Unit No. 1 needs a $100,000 repair, which Rhoades said can be done in two to three days once they get the parts.
Replacing worn fuel injectors on two generators is estimated to cost $12,400, plus labor. Fixing power poles along Case Avenue was estimated in 2015 at $340,000, and has been on the to-do list since then, but that repair, estimated to take six months, will have to be re-estimated in light of inflation.
The list goes on in rough order of magnitude, and consists of 14 items. The No. 1 priority is generator No. 5. The last item on the list is a rate case study to look at what the utility charges its customers versus its costs. The last study done was in 2011.
Rhoades, who presented his list to the assembly at its Oct. 26 meeting, plans to put a more detailed plan of how to approach and fund the repairs in front of the assembly at a future work session.
"Nobody likes to take their bank account down to zero," he said.
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