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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2025-06-20 IMC Meeting MinutesAlaska Intertie Management Committee (IMC) REGULAR MEETING MINUTES Alaska Energy Authority Board Room Friday, June 20, 2025 1. CALL TO ORDER Chair Dan Bishop called the meeting of the Alaska Intertie Management Committee to order on June 20, 2025, at 9:00 a.m. 2. ROLL CALL FOR COMMITTEE MEMBERS Dan Bishop (Golden Valley Electric Association (GVEA)); Tony Zellers (Matanuska Electric Association (MEA)); Andrew Laughlin (Chugach Electric Association (CEA)); and Bill Price (Alaska Energy Authority (AEA)). A quorum was established. 3. PUBLIC ROLL CALL Jennifer Bertolini (AEA); Mark Billingsley (AEA); Patrick Domitrovich (AEA); Pamela Ellis (AEA); James Mendenhall (AEA); Joel Paisner (Ascent Law Partners); Mike Miller (CEA); Paul Millwood (CEA); Sarah Villon (GVEA); David Pease (MEA); and Jon Sinclair (MEA). 4. AGENDA APPROVAL MOTION: A motion was made by Mr. Zellers to approve the amended agenda, adding Structure 616 to Item 8.Old Business. Motion seconded by Mr. Laughlin. The amended agenda was approved without objection. 5. PUBLIC COMMENTS There were no public comments. 6. APPROVAL OF PRIOR MINUTES — May 2, 2025 MOTION: A motion was made by Mr. Zellers to approve the Minutes of May 2, 2025. Motion seconded by Mr. Price. The Minutes of May 2, 2025 were approved without objection. 7. NEW BUSINESS 7A. FY26 Budget IMC Meeting Minutes — June 20, 2025 Page 1 of 5 Pam Ellis, AEA Controller, presented the altered Fiscal Year 2026 Budget that was distributed to members. The changes are highlighted in orange. The Expense FERC 566 on page 4 of the budget was updated, removing the $6,000 for Private Line Telephone Service for AKI SCADA, removing $13,000 for Cell Phone Comm SVC for Weather Monitoring, and replacing with $85,000 for Private Line Telephone Service originally categorized under FERC 571. This results in a net increase of $66,000. The FERC 571 Private Line Telephone Service category shown on page 5 is now zeroed out. Ms. Ellis reviewed FERC 570 Mobile Substation Site proposed budget of $100,000 was removed since the work will not be charged to IMC. She reviewed the SVC Insulator Replacement increased from $3,000 to $10,000. This accommodates the purchase of additional spare insulators. Ms. Ellis reported that the net result of the changes to the operating expenses was a decrease of $112,000. Revenues are counted based on operating expenses, and the reduction results in a corresponding decrease to revenues, as shown on the top of page 4. Chair Bishop noted that the Private Line Telephone Service increase from previous years is due to AT&T data circuits that have been leased and were inadvertently left out of the budget for the past few years. Chair Bishop indicated that GVEA is in the process of collecting and justifying the information on those expenses. Mr. Price commented for the record that the IMC has decided to treat the grants outside of the IMC budget. Discussion and agreement on those matters were held by the Chief Financial Officers (CFOs). Mr. Price reported that the three grants are allocated as shown on page 6. Two of the grants are moving forward, and the third grant is pending review. There were no other comments or questions. MOTION: A motion was made by Mr. Price to approve the Fiscal Year 2026 IMC Budget as amended. Motion seconded by Mr. Zellers. The motion to approve the Fiscal Year 2026 IMC Budget as amended passed unanimously. 8. OLD BUSINESS 8A. Budget Subcommittee — Grant Tracking recommendation Chair Bishop asked Mr. Price if he covered this item in his previous comments. Mr. Price agreed. There were no comments or questions. 8B. Structure 616 Chair Bishop indicated his understanding that the repair project is waiting for the steel to be delivered. The repair to the structure cannot begin until the steel arrives. IMC Meeting Minutes —June 20, 2025 Page 2 of S An unidentified speaker asked if any funds have been utilized in 2025. He also asked if any of the 2025 budget funds have been moved to the 2026 budget. Mr. Zellers answered in the affirmative to both questions. He believes that $50,000 has been spent to date, and that $500,000 is in the budget for next year. Mr. Price requested confirmation that the repairs are still on track to occur in July. Chair Bishop agreed that is his understanding. Mr. Zellers noted that the budget identifies the item as Repair Tower 616 Foundation. The more accurate description is repair to the structure foundation. Mr. Price expressed appreciation for including the line item to the agenda. He noted for the record that the project is on schedule and moving ahead. There were no other comments or questions. 9. COMMITTEE REPORTS 9A. Budget to Actuals Ms. Ellis presented the Budget to Actuals report for the period of July 1, 2024 through April 30, 2025. Actual revenues were less than budgeted by $354,099 due to lower -than -expected energy usage. As of April 30, 2025, actual energy usage was 137,146 megawatt hours (MWH). The budgeted amount was 164,404 MWH. This represents a shortfall of $27,258 MWH. The interest earned for the period was $105,472. Actual operating expenses were less than budgeted by $2,421,219. Several categories experienced little to no activity to date. Ms. Ellis noted that the FERC 57000 Maintenance of Station Equipment, Capacitor Spares, shows expenses of $38,499 were recorded without an allocated budget. This is mostly due to materials that were ordered in FY24, but not received until the current fiscal year. Ms. Ellis reviewed FERC 57100 Maintenance of Overhead Lines. The Northern Maintenance is over budget by $50,058. No budget was allocated for FY25. The Special Patrols item exceeded the budget by $7,482, due to emergency line patrols. Barring any additional patrols, Ms. Ellis anticipates that this category will end the year at approximately $4,982 over budget. Ms. Ellis continued the review, and noted that FERC 58401 Insurance Premiums is over budget by $7,918, due to the inclusion of the second half -year insurance payments and higher than anticipated rates for property and liability coverage. No further costs are expected, leaving a projected overage of $4,218 by year-end. There were no questions. Chair Bishop noted that GVEA is currently finishing two .projects: the Cantwell limit switch addition and Healy Breaker B17 addition. Substantial additional funding will be spent on those two projects. There were no other comments. IMC Meeting Minutes —June 20, 2025 Page 3 of S 9B. IOC Report Jon Sinclair, MEA and Chair of IOC, presented the IOC Report included in the Committee packet. He noted that this is his final report before the IMC, as the IOC elected Mike Miller, CEA, as the new Chair of the IOC for a two-year term. Mr. Sinclair discussed that the budget findings of a reduction of $112,000 matches the approved budget. He reported that the Douglas control enclosure foundation is underway. There is concern that some of the work will extend into the FY 2026 budget. The FY 2026 budget currently has $150,000 for the project. This amount may change depending on the work progression. Mr. Sinclair reviewed that the System Studies Subcommittee (SSS) continues ongoing work on the 230 kV study and the inverter -based resources (IBR) study. The plan is to complete both studies by the end of 2025. Additionally, the SSS was assigned to procure quotes for a Railbelt electromagnetic transient (EMT) model. Mr. Sinclair anticipates that the IOC will present scope options for the IMC to consider in following meetings. Mr. Sinclair noted that the outstanding grants funding remains in pending status. Mr. Price asked when the Douglas control enclosure is anticipated to be inspected. Mr. Sinclair explained that the hope is to have the project completed by the second week in July. He gave the caveat that all construction project projections are subject to change. Chair Bishop asked Mr. Price for additional updates on the grant funding. Mr. Price explained that the grants are currently in process at AEA, and should go out to GVEA promptly. There were no other comments or questions. 9C. Operator Report Chair Bishop requested that Mike Miller, CEA, present the Operator Report. Mr. Miller stated the usage on the Intertie continues the trend of using about half as much as the previous year. There were no Intertie trips to report during May. One event occurred, which was the trip of Unit 10 at SPP related to an issue that was corrected. The low frequency of that event was 59.67 Hz, and approximately 24 MW were lost in the frequency response of 7.6 MW/0.1 Hz. The response is in line with other previous and recent regular responses. There were no comments or questions. 10. MEMBERS COMMENTS Mr. Laughlin expressed appreciation for the today's reports and updates. Mr. Price reiterated the comments of appreciation. Mr. Zellers thanked staff for their work, especially the work on next year's budget with the intent of reducing the surplus carried forward. IMC Meeting Minutes — June 20, 2025 Page 4 of 5 Chair Bishop thanked the Committee members and Subcommittee members for their efforts on these projects. He is glad to see that some of the long lead projects are being completed, including the Cantwell switch project. Chair Bishop expressed his support for the continued work and study of additional inverter -based resources and an EMT model. He thanked Jennifer Bertolini, AEA, and Joel Paisner, Ascent Law Partners, for their support and training. There were no other comments or questions. 11. NEXT MEETING DATE — July 25, 2025 at 9:00 a.m. Chair Bishop indicated that the next meeting date is July 25, 2025 at 9:00 a.m. 12. ADJOURNMENT There being no further business of the IMC, the meeting adjourned at 9:24 a.m. 7% saw n Bishop, Chair CBi Price, Secret IMC Meeting Minutes — June 20, 2025 Page 5 of 5