March 07, 2011
Monday PM

In response to the letter by Thom Fischer, you recommend that "Two solutions should be looked at". The first is to develop more hydropower energy,The second is to connect Southeast Alaska to the North American grid through BC, with the proposed AK/BC Intertie.

To recommend additional Hydro power for Ketchikan is a major understatement, during periods of high usage Ketchikan residents have consumed nearly 32 Megawatts of power, our current system has a maximum output of around 36 Megawatts. This does not leave much extra to sell. The problem lies with the ongoing trend here in Ketchikan to switch to electric for primary heating. In the last 2 years we have had 2 large Condominium complexes and several multi-family buildings make the switch to Electric for their primary heat source not to mention commercial buildings and the multitudes of single family homes that have followed suit. What we need is to look to expand our hydro-electric output to meet the needs of Ketchikan, it's residents and future growth. Hydro-Electric power does not come cheap and it doesn't happen overnight. The idea of selling 35 Megs of power to the cruise ship industry is very appealing but at what cost, I'm no expert but would be willing to guess that an int
er-tie to BC would cost at least 50 million dollars, with a return on the investment of 3.5 million per year this does not seem to be cost effective, at least not from a taxpayers point of view.

If the Port of Los Angeles wants to provide power to the cruise ships I say good for them, we just don't have the capacity and the Tyee Intertie is not all it was hyped up to be.

Scott Cragun
Ketchikan, AK

About: "Concerned about the future of Hydro Electric resources"

Received March 04, 2011 - Published March 07, 2011

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Cruise Ship power opportunity By Thom Fischer

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