Skagway has given the green light for a new undersea power cable to run through Smuggler’s Cove connecting its power grid with Haines out of the way of future development areas. The new cable will replace the existing line that’s near the end of its useful life.
Skagway’s assembly this week unanimously approved a new easement for Alaska Power & Telephone to run a new electrical transmission line connecting Haines to Skagway through Smuggler’s Cove. AP&T received an easement for a fiber optic cable through Smuggler’s Cove about five years ago, with the promise of high-speed internet for Skagway, though that largely hasn’t happened yet. The new cable will run parallel to that existing fiber optic internet line and link with a transformer on the Dyea Road.
A lease price for the access agreement has not yet been determined. The design documents can be found on Skagway’s Municipal website.
AP&T’s Skagway facilities manager Darren Belisle said the cable is key to bringing reliable electricity to the Upper Lynn canal.
“Haines, in the past, has helped us when like last year’s winter storm, we were running off Haines power because we couldn’t get Goat Lake going because there are all the trees on the line. And so they’ve helped us and we help them so it’s mutually beneficial to both communities,” said Belisle.
Not everyone agrees that connecting the two communities is good for all. Skagway residents wrote to the Regulatory Commission of Alaska in 2013 complaining that Skagway ratepayers were promised in the 1990s that developing a hydro dam at Goat Lake would lower rates. But after AP&T purchased the Haines power plant and connected the two communities electricity prices continued to climb for ratepayers. And when the hydroelectric grid doesn’t have enough power to run both communities, expensive diesel generators have to be activated.
Assemblyperson Orion Hanson chairs Skagway’s Public Works Committee. He said connecting the Upper Lynn Canal communities to the same power grid is vital.
“The interconnectivity between Skagway and Haines, which is really important to keep our individual rates in check. And, you know, when there’s a problem in one community, the other community has the ability to power the other,” said Hanson.
Belisle advised replacing the cable as soon as possible is imperative, and moving it from its current location at the south end of the ore dock allows for greater flexibility for municipal projects and contamination cleanup in the area.
“It’s stretched banjo tight for hundreds of feet in areas because there are huge rocks, bus size rocks laying on it, pushing it downhill and landslides and material and it’s just coming to the end of its life where it was laid. We could have laid it back in the same spot, but with the municipality wanting to do a bunch of waterfront expansion in the future, we figured this is the best opportunity to move it off the waterfront,” said Belisle.
According to Belisle, materials for the new undersea cable are back-ordered and won’t arrive for a year or two. But once they are obtained the work will only take a couple of weeks.
The company did make a concession to install a second conduit so that future hydro projects, like the one being discussed at Burro Creek, could access the grid. The end of the Smuggler’s Cove access road will be expanded by 7 to 8 feet to accommodate the new vault, but won’t be aesthetically disruptive. Hanson says the Alaska Native history of the waterfront site has been taken into consideration as well.
“The plan will not damage any existing Tlingit artifacts or heritage in that area,” said Hanson.
AP&T runs multiple hydroelectric systems currently, including the Goat Lake, Kasidaya, and Lower Dewey Lake projects, and at their in-town facility. They also run diesel generators at their 5th and Spring Street location during times when the hydroelectric system cannot meet usage demands.