Happy Thanksgiving Week!

Sunday evening, watching the nice warm AMA Music Awards.  I love watching the stars, seeing the performances, hearing the best of todays music!  It's 9:00 PM, and the temp has risen to 34 degrees, from 27 this morning.  It's overcast,  but not snowing.  

We got some culture this afternoon, a play put on by the local theatre group:  Alaska, The Secret of Yonder Mountain.  It was campy but fun.  

Yesterday I had a good opportunity to check out the bad weather capabilities and performance of the Subaru, and me.  I drove to Craig, on the state highway, which was plowed, and still too cold for any icy conditions.  Then I drove out Pt. St. Nick Road, which was not plowed.  I wondered what the law says about chains, but no one else had them on.  The car performed fine, and so did I, taking it easy.  The only real issue I had was when I tried a few panic stops in the snow, and the ABM (?) took over, pumping the brakes automatically.  I've never liked this feature, but it worked okay.  I also discovered a new "idiot light:"  when I punched the accelerator hard to break the tires lose, a couple of times a red light lit up on the dash, showing a car skidding.  Good to know.

There were two kids on ATV's driving the road, doing power slides, drifting, having a blast.  It looked like a lot of fun.  

Friday morning, and It's 27 degrees outside as I write this post.  I thought maybe that was a new low for me, but Bellingham WA gets that low, and lower.  We lived in Bellingham 32 years ago.  Today, here we are, even farther from 'home.'  For many reasons, Klawock makes Bellingham look so much more attractive as a place to live, beginning with the fact that it is so much closer to home, and has none of the logistic challenges we have here on the island.

Kelli is so good about sending us pictures of Henry.  She texts these to once or twice a day.  He is getting so big, and mobile.  I called her yesterday when she sent a picture of him walking at Murray Ridge Park.  She said he was having a great time, a stick in each hand, wandering around.  Two older boys came to the park, and he sat right down between them and watched their every move.  Often he is talking, too, and we would love to hear what his 14 month old thoughts are, he seems so serious in his 'talking.'  I miss him so much!  I took him to that park often, and loved holding him as we walked around it.  He's too big for that now, but it would be just as fun seeing him walk on his own.   Henry loves being outdoors, exploring, walking, talking, hearing the birds and getting fresh air.  Jared has even back-packed him up Cowles Mountain several times!  

Brady and Faith have their reservations for a Christmas visit!  They will be here for eight days.  Brady is looking forward to a white Christmas, and he may just one!  

Thanks goodness we don't get weather like this:  

FAIRBANKS, Alaska — Alaska's second-largest city is used to cold weather, but few residents expected record-breaking cold this early in the season.  A temperature of 41 degrees below zero - the first 40 below temperature of the season - was recorded at Fairbanks International Airport. The National Weather Service in Fairbanks says that broke the old record of 39 below set in 1969.

We are lucky to have a progressive power company serving us here on the island.  Alaska Power & Telephone is employee-owned, for starters.  The rest of this post details other successful efforts they are making to reduce the reliance on fossil fuels.

Have a good week everyone, and a Happy Thanksgiving!  Thanks for following this blog on our Alaska Adventure. 

Alaska Energy Systems

Alaska's electric energy infrastructure differs in many ways from that in the rest of the United States. Most consumers in the Lower 48 states are linked to an extensive electrical energy grid through transmission and distribution lines.

Alaska does not have a vast infrastructure of transmission interties that span the horizons throughout the rest of the North American continent. Alaska also lacks an extensive interconnected road system to link our many cities, towns and villages. The absence of transmission lines to share cheap power among communities and a road system to transport fuel to remote areas has a profound impact on our members' efforts to bring affordable and reliable power to consumers.

Most electric power in Alaska comes from fossil fuels, natural gas or diesel fuel. However, some alternative energy sources are already in use. More than 50 hydroelectric power plants supply Alaska communities, from the six-megawatt Power Creek plant serving 2,700 Cordova area residents to the 126-megawatt Bradley Lake plant near Homer that generates power for Alaskans from the Kenai Peninsula to Fairbanks.

Recognized as one of the most progressive utilities in Alaska, the keys to AP&T's continued success lay primarily in its willingness to promote and develop long term reliable energy and communication solutions while capitalizing on the innovation and technical expertise of its skilled and dedicated employees.

We maintain systems on windswept mountaintops and storm-battered islands. Our power and telecommunications lines cross rainforest, taiga and tundra. We operate facilities in places that are among the wettest, driest, windiest, coldest and most remote regions on earth. We live and work in Alaska.

June 22, 2010

SOLSTICE ON THE YUKON USHERS THE DAWN OF IN‐STREAM HYDROKINETIC ENERGY FOR AP&T IN EAGLE ALASKA

On June 21st, Alaska Power & Telephone Company, (AP&T) is poised to take an historic plunge in the Yukon River near the towns of Eagle and Eagle Village this week with the cutting edge deployment of Alaska’s first 25‐Kilowatt low‐impact hydrokinetic river turbine. The first of its type to be placed into commercial service, the in‐stream turbine, manufactured by New Energy Corp., is a 4‐blade vertical axis unit mounted on a floating platform. The slow spinning turbine (22 rpm max) produces no emissions, requires no dam and poses very little risk to marine life.

The native town of Eagle Village will likely become the first in America to become powered solely by a renewable river‐turbine hydrokinetic energy source. “One of the primary objectives of this project is the continued displacement of fossil fuel based energy within our company portfolio,” noted Ben Beste, AP&T’s lead project engineer. “In fifteen short years we’ve transitioned from 98 percent carbon‐based generation to a 70 percent renewable‐based platform.” If expanded, the project could displace up to 57,000 gallons of diesel generation fuel annually for the approximately 200 residents of the two Yukon River communities.

 Black Bear Lake Hydroelectric Project, Prince of Wales Island, Alaska

Black Bear Lake Project becomes the first hydropower facility to earn LIHI certification in Alaska and the twenty-second nationwide.

PORTLAND, ME – (December 19, 2006) —The Low Impact Hydropower Institute (LIHI) announced that at their December 14, 2006 meeting they certified the Black Bear Lake Hydroelectric Project as Low Impact. The Black Bear Lake Hydroelectric Project is a 4.5 Mw hydro project at Black Bear Lake on Prince of Wales Island, Tongass National Forest, Alaska. The Project is located about 8.6 miles east of Klawock. The facility is owned and operated by the Alaska Power and Telephone (APT), and licensed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Total project costs were approximately $10 Million.

The Black Bear Lake Project meets LIHI's eight environmentally rigorous Low Impact criteria addressing river flows, water quality, fish passage and protection, watershed health, endangered species protection, cultural resources, recreation use and access, and whether or not the dam itself has been recommended for removal. The Black Bear Lake Project became the first hydropower facility to earn LIHI certification in Alaska and the twenty-second nationwide.

The lake's spill elevation is 1687 feet msl, with a surface size of 215 acres. The lake is used as a reservoir, rather than using a dam, which is accomplished by using a siphon.. A siphon, which is set up on the crest of land at the edge of the lake, is used initially to draw water out of the lake. Once the siphon is established, water passes through both an HDPE and steel penstock to the valve house where flow can be turned on or shut off without losing the siphon. The valve house also has a bypass pipe for bypassing flows to the creek when additional water is needed in the anadromous reach below the powerhouse. When the valve is opened at the valve house, the water flows through approximately 4,900 feet of pipe, some of which is buried and other above ground, to the powerhouse and the turbine.

The water is pressurized by the amount of head the project has (i.e. 1,500 foot drop in elevation) and the small nozzle (needle) the water must pass through as it strikes the runner (a series of spoon-like protuberances on a wheel) in the turbine, which in turn turns the generator creating electricity.

The electricity then goes to the substation where a step-up transformer adjusts the current to the voltage that is wanted on the electrical grid,in this case 34.5 kV. Switchgear in the powerhouse is located in the office where the operations are monitored and adjusted to meet load demand. Operations are also set up to monitor them from a remote location (i.e. one or more of our central offices).

As mentioned, there are rainbow trout in the lake that were stocked there in the 50's. ADF&G had been concerned that the Project's annual drawdowns may be impacting the trout's sustainability by dewatering their spawning beds. Population surveys were conducted for 7 years and a habitat survey was conducted in 2002.

The Black Bear Lake Hydro Project consists of the following features:

(1). A 215 acre reservoir (Black Bear Lake) at elevation 1,687 with storage capacity of 3,200 acre feet

(2). A 600-foot-long Siphon, 30-inch-diameter HDPE penstock with a vacuum pump assembly and structure at the high point elevation of 1,695 msl.

(3). A 30-inch HDPE penstock with a total length of 4,900-feet (820-feet buried intake and siphon, 1,930-feet supported on concrete saddles, and 2,150-feet buried to the powerhouse).

(4). A 44-foot by 67-foot powerhouse with two horizontal Twin-Jet Pelton turbines operating with a gross head of 1,490-feet

(5). A 4.5-mile long 34.5 kV overhead transmission line