1. ALASKA VILLAGE ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE Energizing Rural Alaska since 1968
The challenges of providing
power in rural alaska
Bia providers conference
November 29, 2018
Meera Kohler, President/CEO
Alaska Village Electric Cooperative

2. Alaska Village Electric Cooperative Member owned, not-for-profit
58 Alaska communities
90 full time employees
95 village plant operators
11,400 services
48 power plants
8.5 million gallons of diesel
36 wind turbines serving 20 villages
2 Solar PV projects
Two tug and barge sets

4. Electricity in rural Alaska is expensive – why?
Small population – AVEC's average village is ~400
Small loads – AVEC's average village load is ~140 kW
No economies of scale. Expensive power = less consumption
Utilities are capital intensive. $17,000 per meter in the village
Remote and difficult to access. Shipping costs $1.75/pound
Fuel is expensive – delivery and storage often exceeds diesel cost
Operations and maintenance is more expensive

5. AVEC’s Challenges AVEC rates are high – 50 cents +/-
Residential/community facilities subsidized by state PCE Program
Non fuel costs ~25 cents a kWh, rest is diesel fuel
In dense communities (Bethel, 6,300) non-fuel costs ~6 cents a kWh
Average village consumption 1,300 mWh
No electric heat
Heat and transportation need expensive petroleum fuels
Economies are mostly non-cash, subsistence dependent 5

6. How AVEC tackles the challenges
Pursuing efficiencies
Connecting communities
Adding communities
Developing technical resources
Innovating solutions
Optimizing our people
Developing partnerships that will lead to a sustainable, self-sufficient vibrant rural Alaska 13 6

7. State of the Art Metering
11,000 Smart Meters at all locations (none are pre-pay)
Meters are capable of two way communication
Meters can be remotely (from HQ) connected and disconnected
All meters send reads on demand at end of monthly billing period
Reads are automatically entered into billing system
Bills go out within three working days of month-end
Collections are 99.5+% of total billings
Non-pay disconnects April – October although winter disconnects not precluded 7

8. AVEC strategies to reduce power cost
Add cost-effective new communities
Interconnect villages to improve economies of scale
Improve generator efficiency whenever possible
Add renewables where economically feasible
Capture and sell recovered heat, excess wind energy

9. Since 2003, AVEC has been reducing the cost of living in rural Alaska by using renewables

10. AVEC has 11 Wind Farms Community Pop. mWh Sales Average kW load
kW Wind Installed
Wind Percent
Selawik
876
2,700
325
260
2.23%
Kasigluk +1
1,163
2,900
348
300
18.86%
Toksook Bay +2
1,288
3,300
401
400
19.27%
Hooper Bay
1,178
3,200
386
15.88%
Savoonga
718
2,300
265
200
7.74%
Gambell
713
1,800
223
34.07%
Chevak
989
2,400
288
28.86%
Mekoryuk
210
800
106
13.86%
Quinhagak
724
2,000
248
31.27%
Shaktoolik
282
1,000
120
36.69%
Emmonak +1
1,571
4,400
542
AVEC has had some sites with significant wind penetration to date 10

11. We are installing larger wind turbines
900 kW EWT machines installed October 2018 in Bethel (average load 4,500 kW) St. Mary’s/Mt. Village (average load 570 kW) Also planned for Stebbins/St. Michael (average load 370 kW) We are partnering with Alaska Center for Energy and Power, the Office of Naval Research and others to develop high rate-short term storage to optimize intermittent energy production in islanded micro-grids such as ours. We are connecting communities to bring efficiencies and develop local, regional and, eventually, statewide grids. 11

12. With collaboration, all things are possible!
Meera Kohler Alaska Village Electric Cooperative 12