Juneau utility costs to soar; avalanches wipe cheap power
By ANNE SUTTON
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
JUNEAU, Alaska -- Elise Pringle immediately called the power company when she heard news that utility rates could quintuple after a series of avalanches cut off Juneau's source of cheap hydro power.
"I was squawking," Pringle said Thursday. "If we get hit that hard, we will go under."
Pringle, who struggles to pay the medical bills for a child with cerebral palsy and a husband with cancer, called Alaska Electric Light and Power three times on Wednesday. She called the governor's office twice.
"I said 'What are you going to do?'" said Pringle, shocked by news that her monthly $200 utility bill could morph into a $1000 bill in a matter of days. "We need relief. Federal or state, I don't care."
Pringle didn't stop there. She unplugged computers, turned off the television sets, issued orders to her family to shut off lights when they leave a room and started looking into buying a small generator to see if that might power her home cheaper.
All across Juneau, other residents apparently were making similar choices, according to AEL&P officials who saw a small but immediate drop in consumption despite chilly temperatures and an unseasonable foot of snow that dumped insult onto injury on the town.
The massive series of avalanches, which hit at 4 a.m. Wednesday, took out 1.5 miles of power transmission line and destroyed or severely damaged five support towers along a steep mountainside outside the Snettisham Hydroelectric Facility, some 40 miles from downtown Juneau.
The plant provides about 85 percent of the energy for Juneau, said AEL&P president and general manager Tim McLeod.
"We've always known that the Snettisham line was vulnerable because of the location of those hydro projects and that long transmission line, so we've always had a contingency plan," said McLeod.
Diesel generators were already running Wednesday morning and are expected to continue to supply most of Juneau's power needs for the next three months, albeit at a much higher cost than the 11 cent a kilowatt hour of hydropower generated electricity.
One in five households in Juneau are heated with electricity, according to the city.
"We are very mindful of the fact that this disruption of power will affect every household and business, and for businesses and families that are operating on the margins, this will have a profound consequence," said Juneau Mayor Bruce Botelho at a news conference Thursday.
Financial impacts to public, private and commercial properties will total about $25 million, according to the city, which issued a declaration of local disaster emergency asking for state assistance that included a request to seek federal help.
"It's not to help AEL&P replace power lines but relief for citizens, relief for fuel costs," said city manager Rod Swope who also warned that assistance, even if it's granted, won't be available for months.
City offices have already begun implementing conservation measures, and some power hungry facilities like the ice skating arena and the swimming pool may see their hours reduced, said Swope.
McLeod said AEL&P is filing for an emergency cost of power adjustment with the Regulatory Commission of Alaska to pass through the cost of diesel generation to consumers.
The company said customers should begin seeing the new rates show up with the next round of bills May 1.
RCA spokeswoman Grace Salazar said the commission generally does not require a public notice for an emergency adjustment, but she already had fielded about five dozen e-mails and phone calls from Juneau residents within 24 hours of the avalanches.
"In this case as we are getting a lot of calls, I might ask the commission to consider issuing a public notice about this. But there is a downside because it kind of gets the public's hopes up when we have a regulation in place that generally approves those type of rate increases," Salazar said.
Repairing the line is estimated to cost between $5 million to $10 million, said McLeod, but conditions are too unstable at the site to assess the situation from the ground.
McLeod said the company will bear the cost of those repairs. Not only are transmission lines uninsurable, he said but the company cannot legally pass repair costs onto the consumer.
Though Snettisham is owned by the state, the power company operates and maintains the lines.
The three-member Juneau delegation has also requested state assistance.
Gov. Sarah Palin's spokeswoman Sharon Leighow said two engineers from the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority will arrive in Juneau to assess the damage to the line on Friday.
"We are aware of the situation and have multiple agencies working on it. Hopefully we'll get more information tomorrow and the folks from AIDEA are able to get to the site and make an assessment," Leighow said.
Marie Darlin, who lives in senior housing, said residents and management are turning off lights and tightening their belts.
"I think they are all just trying to figure it out," said Darlin. "We pay our own electricity and we are going to feel it."
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