Big push for Alaska-B.C. power line
Published: January 05, 2010 11:00 PM
AMERICAN PROPONENTS of a power line connecting Southeast Alaska with B.C. providing access to the North American electricity market say they need their governor to speak to B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell.
They’re convinced a groundswell of support in southeastern Alaska can now be transformed into action on a senior political level, says Paul Southland, a Wrangell, Alaska resident and key backer of the ACEcoaltion with ACE standing for Alaska Canada Energy. The key now, says Southland, is the planned Northwest Transmission Line which would run north of Terrace up to a place called Bob Quinn on Hwy37 North.
That location is just over 90km from an existing American line in southeastern Alaska and 3,000 megawatts of potential power projects, he says.
Construction of the Northwest Transmission Line would spur on plans to build the connecting line, Southland added.
He credited the federal government announcement this fall that it would put up to $130 million into the Northwest Transmission Line as a reason for optimism.
“From ice cold, it has now turned red hot,” said Southland of plans to connect the two countries.
“We really now need to involve our governor and have him talk to your premier.”
A lot of enthusiasm for an intertie project solidified Dec. 11-12 at a conference in Wrangell, Alaska.
“When we say 3,000 megawatts, that’s pretty firm to us. There’s perhaps 10,000 megawatts here that could be developed but some of it never will be,” said Southland of potential hydro power developments in southeastern Alaska.
For the sake of comparison, B.C. Hydro’s massive Peace River dam complex in the northeast has a rated capacity of 2,730 megawatts.
The intertie plan to connect southeastern Alaska power projects with a power line running to Bob Quinn would create jobs and economic opportunity, said Southland.
So far, Alaskan governor Sean Parnell is saying he understands the need for the southeast to develop.
“There are a number of hydro and intertie projects that need to move forward, and I look to Southeast communities to set those priorities,” he said.
Parnell said a connecting line from Alaska into B.C. could very well happen.
Meanwhile, a member of the Canadian coalition, which has lobbied hard for the Northwest Transmission Line says it supports the Alaskan efforts.
But Byng Giraud of the Northwest Power Line Coalition says it hasn’t done any of the technical work to determine how a connection between Alaska and B.C. would work.
“There certainly seems to be a lot of opportunity for power there,” he said.
What the B.C. Coalition does find attractive is the potential for mining companies and independent power producers to take power from or transmit power into the connecting line from Alaska, Giraud continued.
“We’ve not done a business case but I’m sure the Americans are doing one,” he said of the connection.
Giraud did say some of the American enthusiasm and push for an Alaskan-BC connecting line comes from the Canadian federal government willingness to put money into the Northwest Transmission Line and the American federal government commitment to hydro and other sources of green energy.
“It’s very much about green energy and the two federal governments have a broad North American power strategy,” he said.
