Ensuring fuel supply, generation decarbonization, member satisfaction, affordability
Arthur Miller is CEO of Chugach Electric Association, Inc. with over thirty years of experience in the electric utility industry, including revenue requirement, cost-of-service studies, rate design, rate case and related filings, economic modeling, asset valuation, contract negotiations, acquisitions, asset sales, renewables, cost-of-capital analyses, load research studies, integrated resource planning, strategic planning, testifying as an expert witness, policy procedures evaluation and improvements, presentations to rating agencies, bond holders, and the legislature.
Alaska is a unique place and presents unique challenges. Nowhere is this more evident than in the electric utility industry. The state’s vast expanse covers over seventeen percent of the U.S. land mass, yet it has a relatively small population of around seven hundred thirty thousand people.
About three-quarters of the population live in the Railbelt region, named because it roughly follows the Alaska Railroad corridor. This corridor, which runs approximately seven hundred miles from the Kenai Peninsula in the south to Fairbanks in the north, is indicative of Alaska’s distinct infrastructure, which includes an isolated railroad system and electric grid, both separate from any other networks.
The Railbelt’s electric power needs are served by four electric cooperatives and one municipal utility. Most of Alaska’s rural areas are served by small, isolated, and high-cost electric systems that are only connected by a statewide energy policy of power cost equalization to help reduce rural electric costs.
Situated between Alaska’s scenic Chugach Mountains and the cold waters of Cook Inlet, Chugach Electric Association, Inc., the largest electric service provider in Alaska, powers Alaska’s most populous region of Anchorage and surrounding communities.