Elim Hot Springs

(continued from page 1) of Elim are in full support of this project. They also received a letter of support from AVEC, which provides the village power. A number of known and suspected hot springs are located in the rugged hills surrounding Elim. Suspected means that elders say they exist, but nobody has been there for years.

Kokhanok Wind
(Continued from page 1) nical support, and financial assistance can conceivably come from many directions. The Kokhanok Project benefits from funding through USDA and technical expertise sharing with the Alaska Center for Power at UAF. The local utility and Lake and Peninsula Borough are also making in-kind financial contributions to the project. Kokhanoks system integrates two refurbished Vestas V-17 wind turbines with existing generators. Utilizing existing generators and controls saves money, but it can crate its share of headaches as well. Marsh Creek says Kokhanok should be fully commissioned and operational within 4 to 6 months. Things tend to take longer than expected in rural Alaska. Here are some of the challenges theyre up against: Somebody on-site needs to know how to keep the system up and running. Local utility operators willing to commit the time and effort to fully understand complex new technical systems is critical. Marsh Creek and Kokhanok Electric addressed this problem by signing a five year Operations & Maintenance/Training agreement. For five years following commissioning of the system, Marsh Creek will provide two site visits annually. These site visits will entail preventive maintenance with hands on training for operators. In addition Marsh Creek is available 24/7 for emergency calls and advice. Not all, but many problems can be dealt with remotely, using the SCADA system. SCADA is an acronym for supervisory control and data acquisition and is a computer program which monitors and controls a facility from a distant location. Other issues can be solved by viewing the SCADA system and talking the local operator through procedures. The village of Kokhanok owns and oper-

ates the electric utility. The new hybrid wind systems first responsibility is to continuously provide high quality power to the community. Wind is considered non-firm energy, meaning it does not always blow from the same direction at the same speed, nor does it blow when its needed for peak electric demand. Kokhanoks demand for electricity can change from moment to moment as well. Engineers need to accommodate all of these scenarios.. Maximum fuel savings is achieved when the diesel generators are turned off for extended periods of time. One way to achieve diesels off is to install more wind turbine capacity than the community needs. The problem then becomes what to do with the extra electricity the community doesnt need. Those of us familiar with plug-in electric heaters know they use a lot of energy. Kokhanok uses something similar, called a thermal dump load, to soak up extra wind energy and dump it into a boiler as needed. Heat from the boiler goes into a domestic heat recovery loop, which in turn is used to heat teacher housing and the school. This way, all of the power generated by the turbines is used. This is important to project economics. Unalakleet, which has six wind turbines, is dealing with the problem of too much electricity from the wind as well. When they first installed their turbines, their powerhouse wasnt ready for the extra electricity. A thermal dump load to supplement space heating was the answer for them as well. The dump load by itself is not enough. Complex equipment is necessary to keep voltage and frequency within tight limits, and to avoid damaging utility customer equipment. Equipment necessary for power quality and conditioning must be precisely controlled and monitored. The Alaska Energy Authoritys Energy Pathway, which performed a detailed analysis of every community in our region and made short, mid, and long term recommendations for conservation, efficiency, and renewable energy, projects it will be 15 years before we fully utilize the winds power here. If Marsh Creeks success in Kokhanok is any indication, that day will come sooner, rather than later.
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Ferns growing around Elim Hot Spring

Last summer, the Alaska Center for Energy and Power tested innovative airborne and remote sensing techniques at Pilgrim Hot Springs outside of Nome. Elim and UAF propose to use similar techniques. The country around Elim is so rugged that even simple reconnaissance is difficult on the ground. It should be much easier to find suspected springs from the air with an infrared camera. The countryside surrounding Elim seems especially well suited for UAFs airborne survey techniques. Elim hot springs is the closest of the springs to be surveyed to the village, but it is not the largest or hottest in the immediate vicinity. Clear Creek is hotter and larger, but is farther away. The UAF survey would include economic analysis of options available to Elim.

our region exported wood for a profit during the gold rush. We saw how Sealaska now heats their 60,000 square foot building with wood pellets. They say the system is working great, and claim to be saving lots of money. Pellets are currently imported from Canada. Sealaska might start making them locally if they can drum up enough demand. If you buy a container load of pellets, pellet heating might be cost competitive with fuel oil at todays prices in Nome. If they start making pellets in Juneau, however, pellet heating might become cheaper.

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During a technical session on alternative fuels we found out about a large coal gasification project going on in Southeast Alaska, and about a new biofuel diesel additive that will soon be manufactured in Anchorage using feed stock shipped from the lower 48. We ended with a bus tour of local energy projects, including a small hydro project nearby the conference, methane recovery at a landfill, and grain recycling at the Alaska Brewery. If you are interested in energy in rural Alaska, the Rural Energy Conference is the place to be. They offered travel scholarships this year. Keep your eye out, next years conference might be closer to home.

Railbelt customers. Space heating consumes 43% of energy in the average village. Ross Coen talked about how the availability of energy resources has influenced where people live in Alaska for thousands of years. Wood for space heating is one critical resource. Guess which Village in

High Voltage DC TransmissionHVDC

The farther away a renewable energy resource like geothermal is from a community, the more the cost of transmission line construction becomes a factor. Todays rule of thumb for smaller communities like Elim is, the energy resource needs to be located within about 15 miles to be viable. The limit is farther with larger communities like Nome. HVDC transmission might double that; its a big deal. Its looking like HVDC will costs about half as much; it only uses one wire. That means utility poles are less expensive to produce and install, and they can be spaced farther apart. Polarconsult Alaska Inc, with funding from the Denali Commission Emerging Energy Technology Fund, is testing HVDC transmission technology near Fairbanks. Princeton Power Systems, a subcontractor to Polarconsult, is developing special converters, needed at both ends of the wire, that are suitable for Alaska. A Stakeholders Advisory Group headed by Polarconsult Alaska Inc., with representation from many of the big energy players in the State, has met three times in Anchorage to help plan the future of this technology. Pilgrim hot springs, shown on the map
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below, is among a number of sites in the State that might benefit from this project. Interties are another good candidate for HVDC. The intertie from Nome to Teller shown on the map below wouldnt even be considered at todays prices. Apparently somebody thinks that HVDC might make it cost effective.

Polarconsult Alaska, Inc