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HEA board candidate tells Seldovia council region needs mixed energy strategy
Summary
Bob Day, introduced as a candidate for the HEA board of directors, told the Seldovia City Council the region will likely need a combination of new gas sources, renewables and storage to secure affordable, reliable power and urged including technical expertise on the HEA board.
Bob Day, introduced at the April 13 meeting as a candidate for the Homer Electric Association (HEA) board of directors, told the Seldovia City Council that the region faces a tight near‑term gas supply and that reliability and cost should drive decisions about the energy mix.
“Nearly 50 years of building the utility all across Alaska,” Day said while describing his technical background and past work on Bradley Lake and other projects. He told the council “we have to find some new sources of gas” in the short term but that “it has to be a combination of all these things” — gas, renewables and storage — to maintain reliability and reasonable cost for customers.
Council members asked Day about Bradley Lake’s contribution to the railbelt and the operational implications of adding wind and solar. Day said Bradley Lake contributes roughly 10% to the railbelt and that about 80–90% of current generation is gas; he emphasized that intermittent resources create operational challenges and that battery systems are one way to “levelize the renewables out there.”
The exchange was part of the public comment portion of the meeting; no formal action was taken on energy policy.
