By ALEX GIMARC
Suzanne Downing wrote an article on the Regulatory Commission of Alaska’s ruling a month ago, in which it rejected the Anchorage Assembly’s request to be reinstated as a voting member on the Eklutna Operating Committee. This committee originally included all three electric utilities, Chugach, Municipal Light and Power, and Matanuska Electric.
Today, following the 2019 purchase of ML&P by Chugach (approved by the RCA Dec 23, 2020) only Chugach and MEA remain. The Muni relinquished its voting rights upon approval of the sale.
The Assembly’s attempt to insert themselves back into the Eklutna Operating Committee with voting rights is based on something called the Anchorage Hydropower Utility, a vehicle created in 2022 to allow the Muni to participate in the Fish and Wildlife Program for the Eklutna River. Gov. Dunleavy approved that program Oct 2.
If you take a look at the linked Anchorage Hydropower Utility document, you can see it is entirely oriented toward restoration of salmon runs in the Eklutna River. There is no expertise in electrical generation remaining at the Muni following the sale of ML&P. The two employees who worked these issues for ML&P transferred to Chugach after the sale. The RCA picked up on the lack of expertise several times in their ruling.
Note that Eklutna Operating Committee is obligated to provide the Muni some 41 million gallons of water per day, which explains the AWWU involvement in the structure. The Muni has rights to that amount of daily water.
Basically, the RCA noted that the Muni fully participated in the ML&P sale, raising no unresolved issues during the sale. They divested their internal expertise in electric utilities, though they do retain a minority share in a former ML&P generation plant as collateral for continued payments from Chugach. They were paid.
Yet now they are trying to leverage their interest in a stable flow of water from Eklutna Lake into reinstatement of a voting seat on an electric utility board. The RCA rejected these arguments, noting that Anchorage Hydropower Utility can most certainly attend meetings as a non-voting member.
RCA opinions are usually pretty dry, but there are some entertaining portions to this one. For example, a voting member is required to retain financial expertise to keep track of sales and book value of generation it owns. The Muni expressly chose not to retain separate, in-house financial expertise in this area and has no plans to acquire any.
The Muni argued that they would like to reopen the discussion on a voting seat before expiration of the two Power Purchase Agreements (PPA) 35 years from now. Yet they make no commitment that their two part-time representatives on the Anchorage Hydropower Utility from AWWU will still be working for that utility 35 years from today.
Worse, they made no case that they could bring technical and managerial expertise to Board Meetings at the level currently demonstrated by Chugach and MEA. This expertise also includes the team of employees backing the Muni participants. None of this exists nor is contemplated.
The Muni argued that they needed larger input on design of the Eklutna Project Fish and Wildlife Program. This request was rendered moot by Governor Dunleavy’s approval of that program in October.
All in all, this was a win for the good guys and a loss for the Assembly and their new BFFs in Eklutna. They have 30 days to appeal, a period that ends on Dec. 15.
Alex Gimarc lives in Anchorage since retiring from the military in 1997. His interests include science and technology, environment, energy, economics, military affairs, fishing and disabilities policies. His weekly column “Interesting Items” is a summary of news stories with substantive Alaska-themed topics. He was a small business owner and Information Technology professional.
I for one am soo glad the assembly can’t get their greedy hands on this issue
The Muni gave up their rights and can sux at the preverbal you know what. The sale of ML&P obviously was not well thought out and the current assembly is a bunch of naive individuals when it comes to finance and power generation. I have proven the financial naiveite countless times with interactions of former assembly members.
Thank you for your commentary / analysis in the Eklutna water/power issue …Alex Grimarc
Please don’t let the communist assembly get their hands on this.
Keep them out for the better for the taxpayer.
Just look at the port renewal and the city’s management that has cost us millions and millions of dollars.
The assembly can’t even fix the homeless problem after many years no solution has been done just bandaids.
Respectfully disagree, Mark. The homeless problem is not one for solving. Rather it exists to ensure an ever growing fire hose of public $$$ into democrat and democrat friendly organizations, which will in turn convert that $$$ into election wins and democrat office holders. The problem is not a bug. It is, rather a feature. Cheers –
I agree but some people don’t realize their tax dollars are being
Laundered through the homeless crisis and onto the Democratic party.
My intent was to state that the homeless problem could’ve been cleaned up in one year, but it’s not because they don’t wanna clean it up. They want your money.
You and I are on the same page.
Agrimarc after we kill the drug trade 3/4 of the homeless problem will go away. Then the anchorage assembly can figure another scam to grab cash from the working man. Praying on sick people is really scummy actually.
While it may be “scummy” you cant argue the handsome six figure salary Meg Zaletel and her buddies get in addition to her other high paying “part time” job of appropriating the tax dollars to fund her “Golden Goose”.