Heads-up to anyone in Juneau, and to anyone moving here soon... (Anchorage: utilities, live in)

[Rance]

You can save a ton of money by switching to geico!

[Barkingowl]

Originally Posted by Rance

You can save a ton of money by switching to geico!

I don't know if I'd buy insurance from a lizard.

[HighlandLady]

And a talking one at that But it's a gecko...are those the same thing ??

[Rance]

Can they declare a disaster and get some relief for Juneau?

[Barkingowl]

I don't see why not. It is a true emergency.

[rotorhead]

Lack of cheap hydro power a true emergency? NOT... It's solely an inconvenient economic issue, and as Glitch kindly pointed out it's hardly unique to Juneau as many bush communities have been paying exorbitant power prices for decades now. Before you go and say that I just don't care enough, keep in mind that those business cost increases are going to be spread all over SE as Juneau is the commercial hub down here.

In any case, Juneau is not alone. Both Skagway and Haines get socked with big electric bills when our hydro sources freeze up, as happened this winter and last. Plenty of snow, but not enough liquid water to run the turbines, so they go to the expensive backup diesel gensets for a month or two and our cost per kilowatt hour goes way up.

When you think about it, it's actually a good wakeup-call about the fragility of the electrical infrastructure in Alaska, and not just SE Alaska either. Just think what'd happen if the transmission lines between the Beluga generating plant and Anchorage got dropped by an earthquake or taken out by a flood. It'd be chaos from Tyonek on up to Fairbanks, with no easy or quick solution. That particular line is a double set, but they both run side-by-side through a single right-of-way the whole route and have to span some pretty major flood zones across both the big and little Susitna rivers, as well as several minor ones.

Actually, if the pocket-protector types at Light and Power can find a way, those cruise ships might just be a big asset for the busy tourist season in Juneau, power-wise. Every one of the big ships typically has maybe a half-dozen huge diesel or turbine gensets that they run in combinations as needed to make their own "housekeeping" power at sea. Since an occupied cruiseship consumes about the same power as a medium-sized town, it's possible that they might just be able to feed some of that excess electrical capacity onshore when they're tied up and their load requirements are lighter.

It's not an insignificant problem finding a way to feed and synch that power into the grid, but it might just be possible. There's a pretty good correlation between the tourist population (and presumably the towns electrical demand) and the presence of a cruise ship in dock, after all. It'd be an ironic reversal of the "too much cruise ship smoke" debate from a couple years ago, but it might just work.

[Xa'at]

Originally Posted by Glitch

So now Juneau has to pay what Alaskans have been paying in the bush for years, and it suddenly becomes a "crisis?" Get a grip folks.

Oh, right, that's very constructive, thank you Glitch for your insight on life in "Bush Wasilla". I'm pretty sure if you had a town of 30,000 people who are generally not well paid, and your electricity bills went up 500% in a matter of a day right after it was doubled, you'd call it a crisis. We've got folks who cannot afford to paid for the heating in their house. Hence, crisis.

I'm from a fairly well off family and the fact that they're worried worries me even more. There is no possible way that Juneau's lower class is going to be able to handle this. As for me, I'm probably going to have to leave for a while until this blows over. There's always a room waiting in hell-hole Idaho- it's a barren wasteland but I get to have hot showers.

Whether you think it's a crisis or not matters little to us, and I'm pretty sure it won't pay our bills, or let me stay in the city I love. So lay off.

[rotorhead]

Hey Xaat, not to belabor the point, but Juneau is hardly the center of the universe (even in AK), especially after the legislative session is over for the year. Yes, it sux hard that the electric rates are going through the roof. Yes, it's one more unwelcome burden piled on the backs of the less well-off. Yes, it bites that you're going to be breathing diesel smog most of the summer instead of enjoying clean, green, hydro power.

But "crisis" is a bit over-wrought for the situation. If you had NO power, that would be a crisis. If the freezers in the grocery stores all went silent, that would be a crisis. If the lights went off in the hospitals, that would be a crisis. Paying a bunch more for electricity for a couple of months...uhmmm...not so much, as they say.

As it is, since nobody got killed and the slide didn't happen to get caught on video, it's no news at all as far as the rest of the world is concerned. I have yet to find one reference to this in any news source outside of the state. You know how it goes...no downtown on fire, no riots, no bizarre sex scandal, no telegenic explosions with huge billowing orange fireballs = no national coverage.

[Xa'at]

Originally Posted by rotorhead

Hey Xaat, not to belabor the point, but Juneau is hardly the center of the universe (even in AK), especially after the legislative session is over for the year. Yes, it sux hard that the electric rates are going through the roof. Yes, it's one more unwelcome burden piled on the backs of the less well-off. Yes, it bites that you're going to be breathing diesel smog most of the summer instead of enjoying clean, green, hydro power.

But "crisis" is a bit over-wrought for the situation. If you had NO power, that would be a crisis. If the freezers in the grocery stores all went silent, that would be a crisis. If the lights went off in the hospitals, that would be a crisis. Paying a bunch more for electricity for a couple of months...uhmmm...not so much, as they say.

As it is, since nobody got killed and the slide didn't happen to get caught on video, it's no news at all as far as the rest of the world is concerned. I have yet to find one reference to this in any news source outside of the state. You know how it goes...no downtown on fire, no riots, no bizarre sex scandal, no telegenic explosions with huge billowing orange fireballs = no national coverage.

I have long believed that the truth of reality is really just consists of our perceptions of it. And right now, the general feeling in Juneau (which may not be the center of the known universe, but it is the center of the universe for the people that live here) is that this goose is cooked. The rest is semantics, as far as I'm concerned.
Whether or not we get national coverage, whether the rest of the world even knows what's going on here, none of that matters. Heck, I don't even care if the rest of Alaska knows. But it ruffles my feathers in a big way when people tell me it doesn't matter, because it does.

[Rance]

So fire up the wood stoves and oil lamps. I lived an entire year that way and was virtually bill free.