ACEP Utility Student Internships 2019

Grace interned with Matanuska Electric Association (MEA) at their headquarters in Palmer, AK. MEA is the oldest existing and second largest electric cooperative in the state and is owned and operated by its 51,000 members. They are a generation, transmission and distribution coop. Most of their power is generated at the Eklutna Generation Station Power Plant, a duel fuel facility that operated primarily on natural gas but in case of interruption to the supply can switch smoothly to diesel fuel. The facility contains 10 generators and can produce a total of 171 MW of power. Grace spent time at the generation plant and toured the facility to learn about the design and operating processes. Other power comes from net-metering of customers, Bradley Lake Hydroelectric facility and the coop also purchases power from other utilities on the railbelt when needed.

Grace’s main responsible was to be a research assistant to the Director of Power Delivery and later on the new Grid Modernization Manager. She spent the majority of her time researching best practices from other utility companies, specifically EV charging infrastructure and integration of renewable energy in the absence of a Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS). Alaska currently does not have a RPS, so there is no justification to increase cost to members for integration of renewables. As part of the grid modernization projects, MEA’s goal is to increase integration of renewables and do it in a cost-effective way. Grace also job-shadowed: she went along with a technical staff member and learned the process of switching a service from temporary to permanent. And she attended vendor meeting with the director: specifically, vendors for electrical vehicle charging station where she learned that operating equipment in Alaska can work the limits of what this was designed for. The background for this work is that Alaska received a portion of the VW settlement and the Alaska Energy Authority developed a Beneficiary Mitigation Plan which contains an Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure task. The Alaska Road belt Electric Vehicle Task Force was formed and is currently conducting research on member electric vehicle use and interest. Phase 1 of the project is to develop a comprehensive regional plan and connect the Mat-Su Valley to Anchorage due to the high traffic volume and emissions in the commuter corridor between those 2 major population areas. Level 3 chargers will be installed first in strategic locations along the corridor and level 2 chargers will be installed subsequently in destination locations like shopping malls and grocery stores. The second phase of the project is planned to connect that corridor north to Fairbanks and south to the Kenai Peninsula.

Grace also attended Alaska Wind Diesel Workshop in Anchorage where she was introduced to emergent technologies and learned about energy storage systems and wind turbine installations. She also listened to a presentation on cybersecurity and why that is important for remote microgrids in Alaska.

Alaska Power and Telephone (AP&T) is a power and telecommunications utility which services many locations in southeast and interior Alaska. They operate both diesel and hydroelectric power plants and the power needs of their customers are steadily growing. As their company expands, AP&T has pushed to generate cleaner and more sustainable power for their customers. In some large communities such as Upper Lynn Canal (ULC) and Prince of Wales (POW), most of their power generation consists of storage hydro and run-of-river hydro. However, AP&T (in a partnership with Haida Corporation) is currently constructing a new 5 MW storage hydroelectric system on POW called the Hiilangaay Hydropower Project, which will even further decrease the need for diesel throughout the year. AP&T is also researching the implementation of an energy storage system (ESS) in ULC to allow the area’s storage and run-of-river hydros to better offset diesel consumption in the winter months.

As an intern for AP&T for the summer of 2019, David Chamberlain worked both on the Hiilangaay project and the ULC ESS research project. He coordinated with the Alaska Center for Energy and Power (ACEP), Cordova Electric Cooperative, and several other organizations to determine which ESS systems might work best for ULC. David also created a spreadsheet model which estimates the benefits of an ESS
using SCADA data from previous years. Although this project will likely not begin in the immediate future, David and other engineers at AP&T continue to pursue a better understanding of the costs and benefits. David worked primarily under the Project Manager, Ben Beste, on the Hiilangaay Project and was tasked with the design, fabrication, and installation of various components of the system in the powerhouse. He learned how to install conduit runs between the several enclosures and their respective units. He was responsible for wiring all the sensors at the turbine inlet valve (TIV) inside the powerhouse, and assisted in wiring for the switchgear and PLC. During his work at Hiilangaay, David was also exposed to the logistical side of running a project of this magnitude through involvement in project scheduling and material procurement.

60Hertz Microgrids is an Alaskan internet startup software company that has developed a maintenance platform for rural power plants suited for diesel, solar, battery, wind and small hydro technologies. The software is installed on tablets and the company is working with the Alaska Village Electric Cooperative (AVEC) and the Tanana Chiefs Conference (TCC) to test and deploy it in AVEC villages around western Alaska. During the pilot, the software was installed in 14 communities and 30 power plant operators participated. The software allows utility companies to track and monitor their remote assets in real time,  and replace the current hand-written and faxed logs. It is also a great platform for interactions of power plant operators from different villages and provides a peer-to-peer support network. The app allows managers and power plant operators to view and digitally capture data logs, field logs, power outages, and can be used as a messaging platform. The data is stored on the device until a Wi-Fi connection is available at which point the data gets transmitted (this is critical as data connectivity in rural locations is spotty at times).

Chong Her interned with 60 Hertz this summer and provided support for testing and deployment of the tablets. He went to out to 5 villages (St. Mary’s, Mt. Village, Pilot Station, Holy Cross, and Grayling) and helped 60Hertz staff train powerhouse operators on the software. While out on location, they also worked on troubleshooting issues that arose, e.g. a Wi-Fi connectivity issues.

Back in the office in Anchorage, Chong did an array of different tasks. He contributed to a market research assessment of initial opportunities in Alaska, as well as the growth potential of Canadian and Colombian markets where remote areas still depend on diesel power generation. He developed better operating procedures for various tasks and wrote up procedure documents for both in-field and virtual trainings. And Chong independently conducted virtual trainings with rural power plant operators. Additionally, Chong provided customer support through follow up calls for troubleshoot problem and technical guidance on app usage. As he became more proficient with the backend of the software, he worked on configuring tablets for deployment, added customer profile data to the database, and customized configurators for the utility companies.

The intern was working in the transmission and distribution department of the utility. Primary responsibilities were electrical system assets data collection, database entry, and AutoCAD/ArcGIS map updates.

The community recently received three BoxPower containerized solar arrays, a Saft battery bank, and a grid-forming inverter from ABB. The intern was working on reviewing and updating procedures related to the operation, maintenance, data-gathering and management of the upgraded utility systems.

Alaska Village Electric Cooperative is a non-profit electric utility serving residents in 58 locations throughout rural Alaska. One of the interns assisted with remote energy data collection, created an AutoCAD drawing library for a new data storage system, and assisted in the St. Mary’s wind turbine power measurement unit and optimizations project. The second intern worked with Anchorage startup 60Hertz and assist with the integration of a mobile application for keeping and sharing powerhouse maintenance logs.

The utility is working on an updated CMMS (computerized maintenance management system) in anticipation of integration efforts with Municipal Light & Power in 2020. The intern was responsible for writing a detailed document containing each component in every Chugach-owned power plant.

The utility continues the execution of the RADIANCE grid modernization project. The intern was assessing the Advanced Metering Infrastructure pilot implementation and the cybersecurity assessment related to that project.

Zach interned for the Sustainable Energy for Galena Alaska Inc. (SEGA), a local non-profit corporation whose purpose is decrease the dependency of the community on fossil fuels and to develop reliable local sources of word. When the air force left 1.5 million gallons of fuel behind to run the base in Galena, the city decided to install a locally harvested wood-fired district heating and water system in what is now the Galena Interior Learning Academy(GILA), which is a boarding school and major economic force. The city was determined to make the left-behind fuel last as long as possible.

Zach's primary tasks for the internship was matrix work for heat demand calculations and field work to prepare for the wood harvest season. First, he gathered literature and charts for references that were used to improve the existing data and to correct some assumptions that had been made in the matrix equations. Next, Zach conducted an experiment on the specific diesel fuel left behind by the air force (the diesel fuel boilers supplement the biomass boilers in the facility) to arrive at an energy value for the fuel in BTU/gal. Zach also worked on the heat production versus consumption model which is the main matrix SEGA uses to track energy consumed in the past and apply this data to predict heat requirements for the future. The final matrix contains heat demand values for every building at GILA for the next 10 months into the future. Out in the field, Zach helped implementing SEGA's Timber Harvest Management Plan. He participated in a 'timber cruise', looking at past harvest plots and selecting future harvest plots by determining which trees are viable. This meant measuring diameter and height of the trees, collecting the data and deciding if the entire area was worth harvesting. Furthermore, a moisture content analysis on the supply of wood that was drying in the yard was done to forecast future harvest volumes.

Zach worked on several other local projects, e.g. assisted with a lighting cost analysis for the Remote Alaskan Communities Energy Efficiency Competition (RACEE) grant that the city had received, and he helped with the installation of solar panels on the south-side wall of the SEGA building, amongst other things.