The U.S. Department of Energy plans to provide up to $150 million toward a new transmission project designed to strengthen the electric grid serving Alaska's most populated communities and major military installations.
The Alaska Energy Authority's Beluga-Healy Transmission Project would build approximately 223 miles of transmission between Beluga and Healy, creating a second high-voltage connection between Southcentral and Interior Alaska. The federal funding, provided through the Defense Production Act, would be paired with $268 million in non-federal funding for a total planned investment of $418 million.
The new connection would give grid operators an additional pathway for moving electricity across Alaska's Railbelt, which DOE says could improve reliability for an area encompassing roughly 75% of the state's population. The department also pointed to growing electricity needs from military installations, mining and other resource development.
“One of the best ways to improve affordability in Alaska is to drive down energy costs, and this announcement will help do just that,” said U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski. “The Beluga-Healy project will help facilitate new generation and strengthen reliability by creating a second pathway to move power across the Railbelt and adding redundancy to our grid. The delegation has been pushing for this for years, and we’re grateful to the Department of Energy for partnering with us to advance this important investment in Alaska’s energy infrastructure.”
The project addresses a fundamental vulnerability in Alaska's grid: limited transmission pathways between major population and generation centers. Adding a second route would provide operators greater flexibility to move power during outages or other disruptions while creating additional capacity for future load growth.
