Fairbanks EPA clean energy loans

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has given the Fairbanks North Star Borough a $4 million grant to help local homeowners nance a change out of old wood stoves for more efficient, less-polluting wood furnaces. EPA gave the borough $2.5 million last year for the same purpose. Fairbanks has serious winter air pollution problems aggravated by the local use of wood for home heating.

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Low water slows Southeast hydro

A low northern Lynn Canal snowpack and spring meltwater runoff has Alaska Power and Telephone’s hydro projects running at about one-third the normal level, and the utility is having to continue power generation with diesel 24 hours a day. At that rate about 5,000 gallons a day of diesel is used. AP&T serves Skagway and Haines in northern Lynn Canal.

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Report out from railbelt consultant

A draft of recommendations for a “Railbelt Reliability Council” compiled by GDS Associates, a consulting group, has been released as a first step toward coordinated power transmission and supply in Southcentral and Interior Alaska “railbelt.” GDS was commissioned to do the study by the Alaska Railbelt Cooperative Transmission & Electric Co., or ARCTEC, a railbelt utility group. The final GDS report will be led with the Regulatory Commission of Alaska. The initial focus of the GDS work is on enforcement of reliability standards among utilities on the grid, but other steps toward coordination, such as a unified system operator, could follow.

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Energy projects in state budget

As it adjourned May 12 the Legislature funded several energy projects in the state capital budget:

• Bulk fuel tank upgrades (rural), $17 million
• Rural powet system upgrades, $21.9 million
• Renewable Energy Fund projects, $11 million