After years of effort, all six Railbelt utilities have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to move forward with an organization to work more closely together to manage Alaska’s largest interconnected grid.

The Railbelt Reliability Council (RRC) is the organization that will define and enforce electric reliability standards, coordinate joint planning through an integrated resource planning process and ensure consistent interconnection protocols for utilities, independent power producers and others who would like to use the grid. The RRC will also study if there are more effective ways for the Railbelt electric system to reduce fuel costs for ratepayers.

The RRC meets requirements established in a 2015 letter from the Regulatory Commission of Alaska (RCA) to the Alaska State Legislature indicating the need for reform on the Railbelt and requesting voluntary solutions from the utilities.

As in similar structures that exist throughout the Lower 48, the RRC will be governed by a mix of utility and non-utility stakeholders. In addition to the six utility seats, the 12-member Board will include six non-utility seats: the Alaska Energy Authority, two independent power producers, a consumer advocacy group and two independent, unaffiliated members. In addition, the RCA and the state agency for Regulatory Affairs and Public Advocacy (RAPA) will each fill an ex-officio, non-voting seat. A 30-day public notice requesting applications from individuals or organizations interested in applying for one of the undesignated, non-utility seats will be released on January 3.

The recently signed MOU lays out a basic structure for the RRC and indicates steps to form an Implementation Committee responsible for developing the foundational documents and setting up the organization. The utilities will file the executed MOU with the RCA by the end of the year. Based on the timeline established in the MOU, it is anticipated the Implementation Committee will be formed by April 2020 with the goal of completing their work by December 2020.

The signatory utilities include Anchorage Municipal Light and Power (ML&P) and Chugach Electric Association (CEA) serving the Anchorage area; Golden Valley Electric Association (GVEA) in Fairbanks serving the Interior; Homer Electric Association (HEA) serving the majority of the Kenai Peninsula; Matanuska Electric Association (MEA) serving the Mat-Su Valley and Eagle River; and Seward Electric, a municipally-owned utility serving the Seward area.

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