The Native Village of Perryville on the Alaska Peninsula has a new power generator. It will help the village use more renewable power and save on costs. Contractors have almost finished putting it together –- but at the moment, it’s almost 500 miles away from its destination.
Today the powerhouse can be found in an unassuming back lot in Anchorage, in a metal container about half as big as a mobile home. The inside is filled with machinery, wires and colorful tubing, including three green diesel engines.
Alan Fetters, who works for the Alaska Energy Authority, sounded a little like an auto mechanic as he showed off the powerhouse’s shiny new John Deere generators.
“It would be like having an old carbureted car you might have had…like a VW Volkswagen Beetle versus a new fuel-injected [engine],” Fetters said. “You get more power, you get more efficiency, it’s cleaner emissions.”
Perryville’s new power system will also be better at using the electricity generated by the village’s wind farm. The powerhouse also will capture heat from the engines for the village school. It will get electricity to more than 100 people when it’s up and running in October.
A mix of federal and state money paid for the $3.3 million project. Sean Skaling, also of the Alaska Energy Authority, argued that’s a reasonable price tag for reliable power in a rural village.
“The size and the cost of this matches the community need. I think the fundamental point here is you need reliable power — everybody needs it and relies on it and it’s just got to be there all the time, without failure,” said Skaling.
Perryville Village Council leader Gerald Kosbruk says the old powerhouse, a wooden building with a rotting foundation, has generators that need to go.
“One just went out last winter and it’s hard to find parts for them and the one that went out actually couldn’t be rebuilt anymore,” said Kosbruk.
Through what’s called the Rural Power Systems Upgrade program, the Alaska Energy Authority has already fixed up dozens of powerhouses across the state. Dozens more communities like Lime Village, Whale Pass and Kivalina, are on the waiting list.
In a few weeks, Perryville’s powerhouse — which weighs more than ten trucks — will be loaded onto a barge and shipped off to its new home.
Elizabeth Harball is a reporter with Alaska's Energy Desk, covering Alaska’s oil and gas industry and environmental policy. She is a contributor to the Energy Desk’s Midnight Oil podcast series. Before moving to Alaska in 2016, Harball worked at E&E News in Washington, D.C., where she covered federal and state climate change policy. Originally from Kalispell, Montana, Harball is a graduate of Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
