How Kodiak Island became 100% renewable powered
Kodiak Island is a 9 hour ferry away from Homer, on the Alaska main land. We visited this beautiful ‘Emerald Island’ at the start of our trip and were greeted by the wind turbines on arrival. We were interested in hearing more about the island’s claim it is running on almost 100% renewable power and what we can learn from that. Katrina Refior, executive assistant at the Kodiak Electric Association (KEA), was so kind to meet with us and explain us all about it. We were also joined by Stosh Anderson from the board.
KEA
KEA is the only grid owner and operator on the island and supplies electricity to 6000 residential and commercial customers. It is a cooperative where the consumers are also the members and share in the profit of the business. It is an isolated micro grid, so its power lines are not connected to the main land. Back in 2000 most of the electricity was generated by diesel (59%) and the remainder by a hydro plant in Terror lake. In 2007 a vision was developed to generate more than 95% of electricity with renewables by 2020. Unlike in many other places they surpassed their target and earlier than expected!
How did they get to 100% renewable power?
They acquired and upgraded the hydro plant, installed wind capacity and added storage to the system. The hydro plant was owned by the state but already operated by KEA. Six wind turbines (GE, 1.5MW) were installed on Pillar Mountain looking out over the village. In a public/private partnership (PPP) between the City of Kodiak and Matson a crane was installed in the harbor that runs on electricity and KEA installed a flywheel to power it. In addition two battery energy storage systems (BESS) of 1.5MW each were added to the mix.
Why did they go renewable?
The case for renewables made a lot of sense for the people of Kodiak. First of all it would make them self-sufficient. Second, as the people live close to nature they had a natural interest in keeping their island ‘green’. Also, it was a very cost effective solution. Diesel generation is very expensive ($28ct – $40ct per kWh) whereas wind can generate at as low as $6ct per kWh. But of course this adds intermittent power to the grid which makes balancing a challenge.
Balancing of the micro grid
The fully renewable system is not remarkable because of its size, the peak load is only around 28MW, but primarily to the fact that it is fully balanced. To keep the grid balanced at the required 60 Hz, the automated system uses a flywheel (FESS, 2x 1 MW), battery storage (BESS, 2x 1.5MW) and the storage capacity of its hydro plant. One smart detail is that the flywheel covers the smaller frequency response before the battery kicks in. With less discharge and charges of the battery its life is prolonged. The system can thus balance the grid and cover peak loads for the electric crane and fisheries (canning and cooling). One big disadvantage of the closed renewable system is that a lot of costly diesel generators still need to function as a full back-up for the system. Nevertheless the overall cost of the system are still significantly lower.
A unique cooperation
The consumers of the electricity are the only ones to share in the profit of the cooperation. The level of electricity consumption determines the size of ownership. Therefore there are no outside equity investors. This is quite unique. What is also remarkable is that there was not much opposition to going 100% renewable. Due to the cost effectiveness the consumer electricity prices have even declined over time. It is clear that the island takes pride in its wind turbines and 100% renewable status. When we got off the ferry it was one of the first things mentioned at the visitor center. The wind turbines are portrayed on flags around the city next to other typical Kodiak features like the bears, eagles and puffins.
Kodiak shows the possibility of a fully renewable balanced micro-grid. Replicability depends on the cost of incumbent/fossil generation, acceptation and available renewable sources. Kodiak has taken on the challenge and now is an example for others. We think it is remarkable what the community has achieved together!
