GVEA Board Meeting, May 27, 2025

Written By Brian Kassof

GVEA Board Meeting Tuesday May 27

All board members in attendance: Chair Tom DeLong, Chris Bunch, Gary Newman, Fred Sheen, Rick Solie, Krista Zappone in person, Dave Messier online.

 

1.   Legislative Update (Yuri Morgan)

  •  Session wrap-up

    • Capital budget down 48%, mostly matches for federal grant

    • 2 energy-related capital appropriations

      • $6 million for Dixon Diversion from Unrestricted General Fund

      • $1.5 million for GRIP (federal transmission grant) match from UGF

      • Bills

        • HB 119/SB14 [bill requiring AKLNG spur to Fairbanks]. Language added that required tax revenues from LNG be used to build related infrastructure [like spur]

        • RPS (Renewable Portfolio Standard)—he believes that it will have a hard time moving out of House Energy next year. At least 4 of 7 committee members currently have reservations about bill

        • Net-Metering Bill—Again, had trouble moving through House Energy because of reservations by 4 members

        • RCA/LNG—will return next year

        •  SB 32 and SB 91—neither had much movement.

  • Outlook for 2026

    • Expects SB 92 [closing S-Corp tax loophole] to get renewed attention

    • Expects movement on GRIP match [matching funds for $206.5 million federal grant to build undersea transmission line from Kenai Peninsula]

    • Watching RPS and net-metering

    • Rep. Mears working on bill to regulate IPPs (independent power producers)

    • Rep. Holland working on bill on vegetation management

    • Expects renewed discussion of authorizing a General Obligation bond to fund GRIP match.

      • Dir. Solie—would the GO Bond be timed for the 2026 general election?

        •  Morgan—Yes. Measure needs to pass at least 100 days before going on ballot for voter approval, so unlikely to be passed in time for primary. He expected that other energy-related projects might be added to a bond.

      • Dir. Messier—What can GVEA do to make sure legislature addresses GRIP match?

        • Morgan—Utilities should work together and with the administration to have a bond proposal ready ahead of session. Best if introduced by Governor.

        • Travis Million—we will work with AEA (Alaska Energy Authority) on this—they are prioritizing a GRIP match, have discussed at the Bradley Project Management Committee.


2. Service Reliability—Nathan Minema

  • 2 big events last year—Denali fire in July and rain/ice storm in October

  • Our 3-year reliability trend exceeds Rural Utility Service target

  • Outages have been fewer, but longer duration

  • Slide comparing outage causes with the total amount of outage time. Animals cause 25% of outages, but these are small—only 3% of outage time.

  • US Department of Energy and National Labs have done studies trying to find balance between cost to consumers incurred by outages vs. cost of preventing outages. So goal is not 100% prevention.

  • They identified a few small feeders that are prone to outages, trying to sectionalize these lines, AMI (meter technology) makes it easier to locate outages.

    • Dir. Messier—Are we tracking reliability and resilience (in context of possible curtailments like ones discussed in Jan. letter)?

      •  Minema—Those would appear as power-supply related outages.

    • Dir. DeLong—how many feeders do we have?

      •  Minema—37 substations, each with 2-4 feeders

 

3.     Rate Case Update (Travis Million)

  • Has gotten a lot of questions about this during community outreach events, will continue providing on-going updates on progress. There will be public work sessions on rate-case related topics during upcoming board meetings this summer.

  • Ashley Bradish on member communications

    • Outgoing comms—so far, introducing concept and process

    • Will advertise those work session with more detail

    • Ruralite articles planned on each phase of rate case

    • Presentation to MAC scheduled for September (open to public)

    • Community meetings in the fall (October)

    • They will meet with community orgs—FEDCO, Rotary, Chamber, News-miner editorial board

    • Will add special page on rate case to GVEA website

    • Will do extra outreach when filing is made (end of year)

      • Dir. DeLong—We are scheduled to have a presentation by Ahmad Faruqui, a time of use expert, to the board—can this be open to the public? [Presentation made during meeting of FAIR on 7/8/25, open to members]

        •  Bradish—yes, if he consents.

 

4.     Member Comments

  • Mike Musick—Thanked Travis Million for talking with him earlier about where things stand with renewable projects. He was disappointed that “environmental” was removed from the Mission Statement. Also disappointed the Board didn’t issue statement endorsing RPS. He noted that having local renewables would be a plus during an islanding episode. They should lobby our Senators to get tax credits [for renewables] reinstated into the budget.

  • Bill Witte (online)—GVEA is struggling to communicate, cites figures for time board spends in executive session. Wonders why there was no mention at the Annual Meeting of the letter Travis Million signed [with other Railbelt executives] endorsing licensing work on Susitna-Watana dam. Said that new, young engineers would have ideas to help transition from fossil fuels.

  • John Davies—He noted that, after the motion to support RPS legislation failed, Chair DeLong noted that GVEA can add renewables on its own. He would like a chart and updates on progress of 2 wind projects; this would help make pace of progress comprehensible to general public.

  •  Richard Theilmann—Supports renewables, including Delta wind farm. But they need base load power to complement intermittent power—his idea is to close Healy 2 and install a Westinghouse 5-megawatt mini nuclear reactor in the building as a new heat source.


5.     New Business—Mission Statement

  • There was a motion to return to the original mission statement, in place of new one approved at April 22 meeting. 

    • Dir. Solie—He thought they did good work in the planning session to adopt the new statement—old one was less concrete, too aspirational. The new one dropped the words “environmental” and “economic”—he doesn’t know why everyone got worked up over dropping “environmental,” but not “economic.” He opposes motion—would like to keep new mission statement. He says old one seemed hypocritical when they didn’t consider the economic and community impacts when they voted to close Healy 2 [in 2022, as part of Strategic Generation Plan]. He is still unhappy about how that decision was handled.

    • Dir. Newman—We recognize that the values of economy, community, environment are important to communities. He regrets how the Healy 2 decision was announced, but not the decision. He likes the language in the new motion, because it is shorter than original, but highlights values of community. He doesn’t want a boilerplate statement.

    • Dir. Bunch—Not a fan of the original mission statement—too wordy. Against reverting.

    • Dir. Delong—He asked if anyone would make a motion to substitute the new draft statement, which is same length as April 22 version

Next part was a little difficult to follow—nobody would make motion to make substitution. Dir. DeLong didn’t appear to want to revert to the original. 

  • At this point, Dir. Solie moved to substitute the new, 30-word version of the mission statement (drafted by Dir. Newman)—this appeared to be what Dir. DeLong was waiting for.  Dir. Solie said the words (community, economy, environment) should belong in statement. [This was a little confusing, given his earlier endorsement of the April 22 version—it appeared that he made the motion to end discussion and put matter to rest].

  • Motion to adopt substitute version passed unanimously.

6.     Management Reports

  • Katherine Strle (Finance)—Said that they would be circulating a modified version of the Rural Utility Service (RUS) Form 7. This is submitted annually, tracks financial information similar to IRS Form 990.

    • Dir. Solie asked if this could be posted to the website

    • Dir. DeLong noted that the annual form was posted in the past, then they stopped, because they weren’t sure if all info was supposed to be public. We need to clarify this if we want to make it public.

    • Dire. Newman—It used to be in board packet, but removed

    • Dir. Solie—Would like management’s opinion on the fact they are discussing this (the most recent form) in public, if some parts may be confidential

    • Dir. DeLong—it’s okay, since we are not citing specifics. But we need a legal opinion on whether the form can be shared with public.

  • Ashley Bradish (Member Service)

    • Annual Meeting—449 members registered in person, highest number since Covid. About 600 total attendees.

    • District 6 election ends June 10 at 5 p.m. They have hit the 10% threshold needed—currently turnout at about 12.58%. They think that allowing voting through MyGVEA app is helping turnout.

      • Dir. Newman—We passed a motion on using texting to contact members 4 months ago—progress?

        • Bradish—Staff did not have time to address before, are working on it now. The system we are using allows people to opt-in for texts (via communication preferences in MyGVEA), but very few have done so. We are looking at options to connect this to our outage system, but not clear if we can.

  • Nathan Minema (Operations)

    • There was a discussion about recent closure of 2 turbines at Eva Creek—they needed to replace some components.

  • Dan Bishop

    • In response to a question by Dir. Newman, said that the Tanana Chiefs 1-megawatt solar project had been delayed because they (TCC) had ordered the wrong inverters.

      • Dir. DeLong noted the increasing number of Qualifying Facilities (QF2) over 25 kw—are there any concerns about growing number?

        • Bishop—There are concerns, but we haven’t reached the threshold where it is worrisome

  • Travis Million (CEO)

    • Will be part of Alaska Power Association (APA) fly-in to Washington D.C. next week; will meet with delegation about restoring tax credits

    • RTO (Railbelt Transmission Organization)—working on the Open Access Transmission Tariffs. Presentation on May 16—they are modifying Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) pro forma OATT to fit Railbelt.

      • Governance Committee approved Backbone Transmission System (BTS) guidance. 1 disputed segment—Cooper Lake line, which Chugach Electric wanted included, was left out.

    • Bradley Project Management Committee (BPMC)—The Alaska Energy Authority (AEA) Board is selling historic renewable energy credits (RECs) for Bradley Lake. Railbelt utilities will have first right of refusal; proceeds have to be spent on Bradley (probably Dixon Diversion).

7.     Director Comments (not all noted)

  • Director Sheen—Delta Emergency Services are underfunded—they are asking if they could add a surcharge onto electric bills.

  • Director Solie—He is very excited about AKLNG project, although economics are a big challenge. But GVEA should minimize regret costs by being prepared for it to happen.

  • Director Zappone—Finance, Audit, and Rate Committee (FAIR) meeting was held in open session this month (?)

  • Director Messier—Appreciated having presentation on LNG imports in open session. Renewables offer long-term, stable power purchase agreements, avoiding the volatility of LNG imports.

  • Director DeLong—Wants to get membership satisfaction score up—the Time of Use presentation at the July 8 FAIR meeting will be open to public.

Submitted by Brian Kassof

 

 

 

 


Brian Kassof
Next

GVEA Board Meeting, April 22, 2025