GVEA can't find cause of outages

January 12, 2000

By AL SLAVIN, Staff Writer Golden Valley Electric Association officials still aren't sure what caused a power line south of Healy to trip on Monday evening, triggering two power outages.

Steve Haagenson, GVEA's vice president of transmission and distribution, said the utility was waiting to hear from Matanuska Electric Association, which maintains the line between Healy and Anchorage.

The problem area has been narrowed to a steep, sloping area near Curry's Ridge in the foothills north of Talkeetna. The intertie is owned by Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority. GVEA maintains the northern half of the line.

Haagenson said GVEA will continue relying upon power from Healy Generation, two generators in North Pole that supply 125 megawatts of power, and two 20-megawatt generators at its Illinois Street facility. In addition, Aurora Energy is supplying the Interior-based electric co-operative with 19 megawatts of power.

Haagenson said power usage peaked Tuesday at 172 megawatts. Peak power usage for last year was 182 megawatts on Dec. 30. Haagenson said GVEA can meet its power demand through local generation until the intertie problem is repaired.

"If North Pole hadn't started we'd be critical right now," Haagenson said. "Everything is running fine. I think we'll do fine."

Source: The Daily Nonpareil, Council Bluffs, Iowa

[ Note: I'll try to get an update on this report ]

-- Lee Maloney (leemaloney@hotmail.com), January 22, 2000