The Alaska Superior Court has upheld the Regulatory Commission of Alaska's decision requiring Matanuska Electric Association to provide 138-kilovolt transmission service to users of the Alaska Intertie.
The RCA's 2004 decision granted the application of Golden Valley Electric Association, Municipal Light and Power, Chugach Electric Association and the Seward Electric Association for joint use and interconnection of an approximately 20-mile section of MEA's transmission line used for operation of the Alaska Intertie.
MEA had been leasing the line since 1986, operating it at a voltage of 138kV under the terms of a transmission service agreement. When the agreement expired in 2004, MEA decided to covert the line back to 115kV, which, according to MEA, was the line's original design capacity.
However, MEA failed to reach agreement on that decision with Golden Valley Electric, Municipal Light and Power, Chugach Electric and Seward Electric associations, and the utilities petitioned the RCA, said RCA spokeswoman Grace Salazar.
After taking testimony from a number of expert witnesses, including the engineer that designed the MEA line, the RCA found that operation of the line at 138kV met the statutory requirements and therefore granted the petition for joint use.
On appeal, MEA argued that the RCA erred in finding that the line could be safely operated at 138kV. However, the state Superior Court agreed with the RCA that there is substantial evidence in the record to support the conclusion that there was no casual connection between operation of the line at 138kV and power outages that occured between 1986 and 2004.
A copy of the court ruling can be found on the RCA's Web site at www.state.ak.us/rca.
Margaret Bauman can be reached at
margie.bauman@alaskajournal.com.
