and eventually to Southcentral. “It’s the only one that can be built in a relatively short time for a relatively modest cost,” she says. “It can deliver the most amount of energy the farthest, the quickest and the cheapest. “Conceivably, this could be online in four or five years,” Kohler says. “It puts all the other projects to shame.” Chief hurdles are obtaining rights of way and permitting, she says. Economist Scott is also intrigued by the project, with the caveat that he hasn’t been able to do an in-depth study and there are still many unknowns about the project. “The interesting thing about the project is that I actually think the construction cost risk is not as big as the pipeline construction risk,” Scott says. “It’s offthe-shelf technology and there’s so much less land disturbance” than a pipeline or a dam on the scale of Susitna-Watana. He estimates it would cost about $3.5 billion and could provide access to huge parts of Alaska that are now roadless as well as Alaska’s urban areas. Given Alaska’s increasingly important strategic role as the climate warms and the
The North Pole Expansion Plant can be converted to burn natural gas should it become available in the Interior. Photo courtesy of Golden Valley Electric Association
Northern Passage opens to more traffic, it makes sense to take advantage of economies of scale provided by defense and mining needs to string power lines west to Nome and Kotzebue. An HVDC project could even power the giant Red Dog mine on Alaska’s northwest coast, Scott says. Power lines also would pass through the highly mineralized Kobuk and Ambler areas. Mining companies are exploring rich copper, silver, gold and other mineral deposits in the area. An HVDC project “becomes able to unstrand a lot of stranded resources so you
can get them into the grid,” Scott says. “There’s a future in which the HVDC becomes backbone infrastructure that unlocks a huge part of these resources,” Scott says. “Roads to resources is interesting,” Scott says. “Let’s think about wires to resources. It’s cheaper, a lot more efficient. It provides what the mines with the resources really need.” Julie Stricker is a writer living near Fairbanks.
www.akbizmag.com • Alaska Business Monthly • March 2013
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