Joint ACEP-AVEC Intern Explores Increasing Utility’s Renewable Portfolio

ACEP is excited to sponsor Michelle Wilber as an intern at the Alaska Village Electric Cooperative office in Anchorage this summer.

Wilber is completing her master’s thesis in mechanical engineering at UAA. Under the guidance of ACEP researchers and AVEC staff, she will research and identify a vendor for a grid-bridging system specification for AVEC.

The goal of the project is to enable AVEC to optimize and add more renewables into its systems while still maintaining power quality and sufficient backup "spinning reserve." AVEC operates over 50 remote and isolated diesel-powered microgrids in Alaska, ranging in size from 100 kW to 4,500 kW.

Michelle Wilber joins ACEP under a joint position with AVEC. Photo courtesy of Michelle Wilber.