What Alaska Can Teach Us About the Future of the Grid

Matt (0:00)

The power grid of the future is in a rural town in Alaska, at least according to our guest, Peter Asmus. In his new book, Alaska's Microgrid Innovators, he talks about an isolated community in Cordova that has overcome disasters, baked in a data center, and enhanced their use of renewables, all while keeping rates on par or even lower than utilities in denser continental grids. How did they do it? Let's find out.

So Peter, this is your fifth book on energy, and I'm curious to hear from you. What compelled you to dive back in? What makes this one stand out in your mind? What was the story you wanted to tell?

Peter Asmus (0:37)

After my last energy book before this one, which was back in 2009, I said, I'm never going to write another energy book again. But part of that was because so many of them were about California, different aspects of California. One was the history of wind. The last one was actually an academic press, just sort of the history of energy, all about California. And I learned some new things, more about the hydro and the oil industry, history of California, which doesn't get that much. But in this case, I actually had a job as an adjunct faculty in Alaska. It was more like they came to me and because of my skills as a book author, approached me. So in this case, I was actually writing a book sort of as my job.

The other books, you write a proposal, you get an advance and then usually you stress out because the money runs out before you're done with the book. And it's kind of a stressful exercise. So this one was not that.

So it was also because it was about Alaska, I wasn't as familiar with Alaska. And Alaska is off of sort of the map of a lot of people when they think about energy. It's way up there at the top of the world. So all of those things kind of made it attractive to me. I also, when I was an analyst, did a lot of research on microgrids, and I was introduced to a woman up there. And they didn't even know what they had were necessarily microgrids. It was sort of interesting. And when I looked in, I said, do you realize that your entire state, every single person is basically getting power from a microgrid? And so that's what also attracted me to the story.

Matt (2:20)

Yeah, it's fascinating that the story kind of came to you. And so give us a little bit more of the big picture there. You're in Cordova, Alaska. What's that environment like? And what was the big story beyond just, hey, they're on a microgrid?

Peter Asmus (2:33)

This book, I should also explain, is more... I was more like the catalyst, the organizer, should say ghostwriter, but not in all cases. The story of Cordova was actually written by the CEO there. And that's kind of one of the most amazing stories, especially for a utility audience. So this book is more first person accounts, except the beginning is a historian, kind of lays out the land. And then I write the concluding chapter, which sort of ties all of these stories together and sort of looks into the future. So Cordova, and I have been to Cordova, it's one of the places I have been to, you know, it's like a utility that's gone through all these changes. So the utility started in 1907 due to copper mining. There's a river called the Copper River. Then the copper ran out, and then it became a big clam processing facility. Then there was an earthquake, and the ocean floor dropped like eight feet or something and wiped out all the clams. So that industry was gone. And then eventually what happened was salmon. So if you go to a Costco and you see Copper River salmon, that's coming from Cordova. But what makes Cordova interesting in a lot of these, what we call off-grid microgrids, is that there is no other grid. There's not even a road to Cordova. When I went to Cordova, I had to go by plane. I had to rent a car. The rent-a-car place was in a bar, and it was the worst car I've ever driven in my life. I laughed when I returned it because it almost died. It smelled like beer and cigarettes. The guy said, yeah, maybe we should retire that car after I returned it. But really, the story of Cordova is one of innovation going against the odds. It started out as a private utility, became a rural cooperative. It started out 100 percent hydro, then went 100 percent diesel, and then there were issues with the diesel plants becoming outdated.