Category: Juneau

I Found My Footing In Juneau With Yaktrax

YaktraxThis whole winter I have been slipping on ice. Ice on my drive way, Ice on the steps up to my office, Ice on side walks, and everywhere else it hides. I don’t know what makes this winter so much more special then all the other past winters, but this year it seems whenever I am walking outside I am sure to slip. I have fallen more times then I want to admit since December.

I knew that their are products you could put on your shows to help keep one from slipping and falling outside. I just had not tried to figure out what these products where.

While Hannah’s folks where staying with me, I noticed that they where waring things on their shoes. It kept them from slipping and falling during our visit to the Mendenhall Glacier. What they where wearing was called “Yaktrax“. I was so impressed with how well they where working that the next day we went out and I  picked up a pair of Yaktrax to strap on to my own shoes. These things are pretty awesome. Whenever I am about to go out side I strap them on.  I have not slipped for fallen since.

The idea here is pretty simple and makes sense. A rubber mesh wraps around the bottom and sides of your shoes or boots, and is secured with a velcro strap that fixes it’s self across the top of your feet. The messh on the bottom is wrapped with stainless steel coils that give you traction on ice. They are life savers.

Juneau Is Off Generator Power

For everyone who has been wondering about our power shortage here in juneau, The Juneau Empire is reporting:

Alaska Electric Light & Power Co. reported power restored at about 5:05 p.m., and the diesel generators keeping the city lit during the past three weeks were shut down shortly after.Engineers bypassed tower No. 3-5 – the lone casualty during the Jan. 12 slide – to another tower less vulnerable to avalanches, AEL&P Vice President Scott Willis said.

“Engineers … determined that the standing towers on either side … could handle the (power) load,” he said.

The Juneau Empire goes on to say:

The most recent energy crisis lasted just half the time of last year’s, and will cost a fraction of the $6 million in damage caused by last spring’s avalanche. Willis estimated repairs this time around would be in the neighborhood of $1 million.

Though final numbers won’t be available until later today, Willis said roughly 1.6 million gallons of diesel – or $3.6 million worth of fuel – were burned during the city’s three weeks without hydro power.

For residential users, that will mean just one month of paying for a 15-cent Emergency Cost of Power Adjustment, which Willis said AEL&P will ask the state’s Regulatory Commission for later this week. Energy costs during the current billing cycle will be about 25 cents per kilowatt hour.

Willis warned residents to continue conserving energy because the more expensive billing cycle is still in effect. The end of the billing cycle varies from person to person. Details about residential billing can be found at www.aelp.com.

Mendenhall Glacier

Sunday, Hannah left Juneau for Anchorage to take some nursing classes. Her folks came into town the day before she left. The nice thing was that the day she left for the north it as very sunny. Cold, but sunny. We were able to get some morning pictures taken before she left. After her folks and I dropped her off at the airport we took a trip to the Mendenhall Glacier. Mendenhall Lake was frozen over and we where able to walk across it to the actual glacier. It was really cool.

Juneau Is Running On Diesel Power Again

I was sitting in my office yesterday afternoon when the power went out. Living in Juneau you get used to that happening randomly. I soon learned after the power was restored that another avalanche, much like the one last year, took out a towers that provides Juneau it’s electricity from the Snettisham hydroelectric damn.

According to the Juneau Empire website

An avalanche took down the Snettisham transmission line Monday afternoon that supplies Juneau with electricity, presenting the possibility of another energy crisis.

It’s the second time in a year that an avalanche destroyed the line.

Monday’s avalanche occurred at around 1:40 p.m. south of the capital, knocking out one of the same structures destroyed during massive avalanches last April.

Last year’s disaster resulted in Juneau relying on costly backup diesel power for a month and a half, increasing utility costs for consumers and prompting residents to conserve electricity usage by one-third.

“We’re going to be down for some time so we need to ask the community to conserve again like they did last time,” Alaska Electric Light & Power Co. spokesman Scott Willis said.

After the company surveyed the damage Monday from a helicopter, Willis said it was too early to know how long it would take to repair the structure.

“Now that we see what condition the tower’s in, and the towers next to it, we can start to develop a plan,” Willis said. “I know everybody wants to know how long it’s going to take, but we’re just now getting into a plan. It’s going to be days certainly, weeks probably and I don’t know more than that.”

Power consumption fell about 30 percent in April after the rate changes were announced. Residents reported a wide range of adjustments to conserve electricity, from swapping out traditional light bulbs for high efficiency compact florescents to using a clothesline instead of a dryer to putting timers on water heaters.

Ken Burch, a Douglas resident who likened last year’s outage to “Juneau’s Hurricane Katrina” and tried to rally support for AEL&P to protect the rebuilt lines in a May letter to the editor, said he wasn’t surprised by the news Monday.

“They knew from the experience last spring this could happen. They’ve still chosen not to deal with it. It means we’ve got to keep pressure on them,” Burch said. “I’m not sure if they’ve learned yet. This doesn’t come as a surprise to me that this happened.”

Shana Sellers of Douglas was upset that the city would be in the same situation again.

“Why haven’t we done anything about it?” she asked. “Why haven’t we done anything to resolve this issue?”

Damage was done to a “three-pole structure” identified as No. 3-5, which consists of three separate towers the company considers one structure. Each tower holds one wire, or one phase, of the three-phase line that travels the approximately 40-mile distance from the Snettisham Hydroelectric Project to Juneau.

“Last year there were three different structures in three different locations that were damaged,” Willis said. “And this one, which was kind of in the middle, was the last spot that we were able to safely access. There was ongoing avalanche danger in this area more than the ones on either side.”

The repair last year cost more than $3 million.

“It will be much less than that this year, I think, but it depends on how much more difficult it will be in the wintertime and that sort of thing,” Willis said.

The weather is likely to hamper repair efforts because of the ongoing avalanche danger, he said.

“I think it’s going to be a more difficult job,” Willis said. “Now, the bright side is that it’s just one (structure), not three and diesel fuel is cheaper now that it was last spring.”

The town will continue to run on backup diesel generators at least for the coming days, Willis said. The company has a three-day supply it keeps in storage and was in contact with two oil companies about buying additional reserves in town.

As of late Monday afternoon, AEL&P had not yet discussed the likelihood of going to the Regulatory Commission of Alaska to ask for an emergency Cost of Power Adjustment to increase rates for Juneau consumers.

Rates went up by about 450 percent last spring.

City Manager Rod Swope said it is still too early to see what, if anything, the city and Assembly can do to help offset potential energy cost increases for Juneau residents.

“We’ve been here before, and we’re here again,” Swope said at an Assembly meeting Monday night. “At least we have some experience in the situation.”

Willis told the Assembly that Anchorage consultants are flying to Juneau to look at possible temporary fixes.

Fortunately, Mendenhall Valley residents should be able to keep their wood stoves burning this week instead of using electric heat.

City Lands and Resource Manager Heather Marlow said it’s unlikely there will be a valley air emergency and burn ban.

“The forecast is rainy, storm cells coming through, mild winter temperatures – none of the factors that contribute to air problems in the valley. This week looks great,” Marlow said.