Revitalized project will offer Alaskans energy data access

A University of Alaska project will update a public energy data resource in Alaska.

With the support of the Alaska Legislature, the university will begin a three-year effort to revitalize the Alaska Energy Data Gateway, a project to create equitable access to Alaska energy data and data analytics.

UA Fairbanks’ Alaska Center for Energy and Power and UA Anchorage’s Institute of Social and Economic Research will collaborate with agency partners on the project.

“We are excited that the state of Alaska recognizes the inherent value of this resource and is investing in its revitalization,” said Gwen Holdmann, a senior researcher at ACEP who also serves as UAF associate vice chancellor for research, innovation and industry partnerships.

The gateway contains comprehensive energy and socioeconomic data from across Alaska. With this information, communities, researchers and energy project developers can compare energy resources across the state and make informed energy decisions.

The Alaska Energy Authority’s Alaska Energy Security Task Force recommended the data-gathering effort in its 2023 report.

The datasets document electrical generation capacity (the maximum power that a system can produce in a specific time), energy production and fuel costs alongside metrics on human, technical and financial capacity.

The gateway was first released in 2013 as part of a collaborative ACEP-ISER research program. It was part of the first project awarded to the University of Alaska by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research.

“At that time, there was significant interest in reducing energy costs in rural Alaska, and it became clear that without access to robust, open data and reporting about communities and projects, it was challenging to identify and improve best practices,” recalled Holdmann.

For this project, ACEP and its partners will develop pathways to streamline data-sharing efforts with new techniques and will revitalize critical technology in order to improve distribution. They will also work with state agency partners to support the accessibility and documentation of Alaska’s energy data.

Partners in the project include ACEP, the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, AEA, the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation, the Department of Commerce and ISER. 

ADDITIONAL CONTACT: Elizabeth Dobbins, 907-474-5402, eldobbins@alaska.edu 

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