Alaska Village Electric Cooperative

A non-profit electric utility with the largest service area in the World.

2009 - Year in Review

January 15th, 2010

The start of a new year is a good time to reflect on some of the many accomplishments Alaska Village Electric Cooperative (AVEC) achieved last year. AVEC is small in terms of the number of employees we have, but we proudly meet the challenges involved in providing electric service to an extremely large, remote geographical area.

Meeting these challenges is not easy, especially with limited resources, including a small staff to serve more than 7,000 customers and 53 communities spread throughout western Alaska.

AVEC's successes are a direct result of the cooperative efforts of our talented and dedicated staff and board of directors, as well as the cooperation of our members. This cooperative spirit helped bring countless improvements to AVEC and its members' lifestyles for more than 40 years.

Many communities have seen major facility and system upgrades built in recent years, including new power plants, wind turbines, heat recovery systems, bulk fuel tank farms or overhead distribution lines. But other, smaller projects have been completed as well, including installing high-efficiency, diesel engine-generator sets and automated control gear, as well as performing engine tune-ups and overhauls.

AVEC is installing electronic meters with automated meter reading (AMR) capabilities in all of our communities. This state-of-the-art technology allows us to remotely record your electric consumption and eliminates the need for meter readers to perform manual meter reads every month.

Many of our meters are very old and from a variety of manufacturers. With this upgrade, every consumer will have a new, calibrated meter to provide accurate billing information that integrates with our computer system to process billing more efficiently. The remote disconnect features will save money as AVEC will no longer need to send collectors out.

All of these improvements increase system reliability and operating efficiency, which helps reduce the overall cost of providing power.

While AVEC members see these finished projects in their communities, they don’t see all of the hard work that goes on behind the scenes. Each project requires advance planning, financing, sitework, permitting, design and preparation before most equipment or parts even get ordered, and before the actual construction work begins.

Every project AVEC completes is the result of the efforts and teamwork of many different individuals performing their various duties.

As you read through this list of major and minor projects AVEC completed last year, remember that this is YOUR cooperative, and take pride in what we have done. AVEC may be small in size, but we sure are "big" in our cooperative spirit and acccomplishments!

Emmonak Power Plant Flooded

During spring break up, the Yukon River flooded and brought high water into many communities. Luckily only the Marshall, Emmonak and Alakanuk services areas reported disruption or impact of AVEC facilities. Emmonak suffered the worst affects, as the river pushed lots of big ice chunks over the banks and into the community. AVEC employee Marvin Mahlum was stationed at the plant in Emmonak in anticipation of the flood. He managed to keep the plant running and minimized the impact to AVEC facilities. During the flood Marvin raked grass and cleared debris from the fence to keep the water flowing through; chipped larger ice chunks with a pick and pushed them along; and chased down a 27,000-gallon fuel tank that had broken from its mooring and re-anchored it to a storage van by the water plant. The plant site was inundated with two to three feet of flowing water for two to three days over Memorial Day weekend.

Distribution Projects

Linemen travelled all over trying to meet consumers' wishes to have power as soon as possible when projects were ready. In 2009 they connected more than 68 new single family homes in at least 29 different villages, connected multi-family housing units in Hooper Bay and Alakanuk, and installed service to new teacher housing in Savoonga, Togiak and St. Michael and Shaktoolik. New clinic services were installed in Goodnews Bay, Gambell, and Teller. New line extensions and services were completed to airport facilities in Noorvik, Minto, Nunapitchuk, Nightmute, and Savoonga. City and Corporation buildings were connected in Brevig Misssion, Toksook Bay, Huslia, Nightmute, and Shishmaref. Services were upgraded to school buildings in Akula Heights and St. Mary's, and line extensions to new schools were begun in Marshall, Russian Mission and Upper Kalskag. Code Red fire stations were connected in Kasigluk, Shungnak, Savoonga, Scammon Bay, and Toksook Bay. Line extensions to telecommunication towers were installed in Shageluk, Grayling and Anvik.

There was also extensive distribution work completed to support Denali Commission Projects, modifications to the distribution systems for new generation facilities in Hooper Bay, Nightmute, Chevak, and Brevig Mission and line extensions to new wind turbines in Gambell, Chevak and Mekoryuk.

Combined with installing and repairing streetlights, disconnecting and reconnecting homes to allow consumers to renovate service equipment, replacing failed transformers, responding to storm damages, repairing line breaks, relocating facilities for new construction and installing and removing more than a dozen temporary construction services it has been another busy year.

Electronic Meters

29 communities have electronic meters.

Denali Commission/Tielines

Funding from the Denali Commission has substantially decreased, resulting in scaling back our list of planned construction programs. Crews worked on the following projects: the control module in Hooper Bay; erecting wind turbines in Mekoryuk, Chevak and Gambell; a bulk fuel tank farm in Mekoryuk; and tank farms and power plants in Chevak and Brevig Mission. The tieline between Toksook Bay and Nightmute was built.

Generation Projects

New Diesel Power Plants Completed
  • Hooper Bay, control module
  • Chevak, new diesel power plant
  • Nightmute, standby module

New/Upgraded Power Plants Under Construction
  • Brevig Mission
  • Hooper Bay

New Engine Startups
  • Huslia Detroit Diesel Series 60
  • Shaktoolik Detroit Diesel Series 60
  • Minto L-10

Bulk Fuel Tank Farm Upgrades

  • St. Mary's
  • Marshall
  • Emmonak
  • Brevig Mission
  • Mekoryuk
  • Nightmute

New Wind Turbines
  • Mekoryuk, two 100 kW turbines
  • Chevak, four 100 kW turbines

Wind Monitoring Stations
  • Completed: Marshall, Pitkas Point, Chevak, Hooper Bay
  • Ongoing: St. Mary's
  • New: Emmonak, Shaktoolik, Mountain Village and Teller

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AVEC 4831 Eagle Street Anchorage Alaska 99503 (907) 561-1818 Copyright © All content property of Alaska Village Electric Cooperative, Inc. All Rights Reserved.