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AEA says federal GRIP grant backs HVDC submarine cable to add Railbelt redundancy
Summary
The Alaska Energy Authority briefed the Senate Finance Committee on the Grid Resilience Innovation Partnership (GRIP) HVDC submarine cable across Cook Inlet, reporting partial federal funding secured and additional funding needs to complete the project.
Curtis Thayer, executive director of the Alaska Energy Authority, told the Senate Finance Committee that AEA secured a major federal grant under the Grid Resilience Innovation Partnership to build a high-voltage direct current (HVDC) submarine cable across Cook Inlet that would link Nikiski and Beluga and provide a redundant transmission route for the Railbelt.
Thayer said the HVDC line — described as a 38-mile subsea cable with converter stations at each end — would allow more renewable power to be integrated and transferred across the Railbelt, reduce single points of failure and improve resilience for utilities and military installations. He said the project converts alternating current to direct current at converter stations in Nikiski and Beluga to transport energy with lower losses.
AEA’s presentation listed a total estimated cost of roughly $413 million and said about $206.5 million in federal funding had been secured, leaving an estimated $143.8 million to close the funding gap. The slides cited expected economic impacts during construction and operations: AEA’s materials showed labor income of about $129 million and total economic output near $332 million. The presentation also included a jobs estimate tied to construction; committee members asked for the supporting materials underlying those estimates.
Thayer framed the HVDC cable as a resilience and emissions strategy as well as an infrastructure project. "We received one of the largest GRIP awards in the country," he said, noting AEA was among 58 recipients selected from about 700 applications.
Committee members asked how maintenance and ongoing operations would be funded. Thayer said the state would retain ownership of the asset while operations and maintenance would be undertaken by the utilities that use the line under existing or negotiated agreements; he described that as consistent with AEA’s approach for other Railbelt assets. No formal committee vote was taken; the session included questions about permitting, construction windows and remaining funding requirements.
Ending: AEA said it will share further documentation on project cost breakdowns, economic assumptions and operations-and-maintenance plans with the committee.
