A half-century-old plan to connect Metlakatla and Ketchikan’s power grids has taken a big step forward.
Metlakatla is seen in the distance in 2020 from a turnout on Walden Point Road on Annette Island. Metlakatla has run electrical and telecommunications cables to the ferry terminal at the end of the 14-mile road in preparation for the interconnection.
The agreement is just a few pieces of paper — there’s still a multimillion-dollar, two-mile-long undersea cable to fund, build, and bring online — but officials on both sides of Nichols Passage see it as a big step towards making the electrical intertie a reality.“Through this agreement, both of our communities have access to backup power when needed. We both can reduce our reliance on diesel use, and we both have opportunities to sell excess power when available,” Smith said.
It’s not clear when the grids will actually be connected. Acting Ketchikan Public Utilities Electric Division Manager Jeremy Bynum estimates it’ll be at least a couple of years. “The biggest portion of people that we have on our island are elderly, and you’ve got people that have diabetes, and cancer patients and stuff like that, so it makes it really important for telehealth to work well,” Booth said. “If we had good internet and someone could take vitals and do all those things in real time, then people aren’t having to go to Anchorage, possibly.”