Committee hears AVEC and IBEW on bill to restore small‑community certificate exemption

Lawmakers heard competing implementation concerns on Feb. 24 over HB329, a committee bill aimed at clarifying a long-standing exemption from Alaska’s certificate-of-fitness requirement for electric utility employees who serve small, noninterconnected communities.

Griffin Plush, staff to Co-chair Donna Mears, told the committee the bill would amend AS 18.62.010 to make explicit that the exemption applies to portions of a utility’s service area that are not electrically interconnected and applies to municipal or tribal employees when acting on behalf of the utility.

Bill Stamm, president and CEO of Alaska Village Electric Cooperative (AVEC), said AVEC serves 58 largely noninterconnected rural communities and that AVEC has relied on the exemption since the cooperative’s founding. Stamm told the committee the issue arose after the Department of Labor advised AVEC over the summer that including Bethel in AVEC’s service area — a community with more than 2,500 people — raised the service-area population above the statutory threshold, prompting a cease-and-desist and a denial of a requested variance. "That was brought to an abrupt halt over the summer after getting a cease and desist order from the Department of Labor," Stamm said, and he warned the change has created logistical costs and potential delays in restoring power in remote communities.

Ryan Andrew, assistant business manager for IBEW Local 1547, told lawmakers the certificate of fitness reflects substantial training and safety standards in the electrical trades: "The certificate of fitness requires that electricians and power linemen have had at least 8,000 hours of training in their field and that they take a competency exam before they're able to work as journeymen and women." Andrew said any statutory exception should be narrow and well defined; IBEW supports HB329 as drafted because it limits the exception to clearly defined circumstances.

Lawmakers probed whether exempted work would include new construction as well as maintenance and who would set qualification standards for employees. Stamm said in practice the exemption is mainly used for maintenance tasks; AVEC trains plant operators to meet OSHA standards, uses de-energized-line procedures in smaller communities, and requires demonstrated ability before asking operators to perform field tasks. He described scenarios where, under the stricter interpretation, AVEC would have to fly a journeyman lineman long distances to replace a fuse or cutout — a delay that could extend outages from hours to days and raise costs for ratepayers.

Co-chair Mears closed public testimony after no commenters appeared in person or online and announced an amendment deadline for HB329 of Monday, March 2 at noon. The committee set the bill aside for further work; no vote was taken on Feb. 24.

Next steps: the committee requested technical follow-up and set an amendment deadline to allow members to file changes before the next hearing.