Matanuska Electric Association, Alaska’s oldest and second-largest electric cooperative, is owned and operated by its members. MEA’s service area extends north past Talkeetna, over to the mighty Matanuska Glacier, and south to Eagle River – an area greater in size than the state of West Virginia.

In 1941, 202 colonist families, working to build a better future for their fledgling community, came together to form Matanuska Electric Association. The first power was delivered to members in 1942, and by 1943 all 242 members were served by 287 miles of power lines. In 2013, MEA celebrated 72 years of service with more than 58,000 points of service and more than 4,000 miles of electrical lines.

MEA has historically been a purchaser and distributor of power generated by others. However, in March of 2011, the MEA Board of Directors made the historic decision to take charge of its own destiny by building its own generation facility at Eklutna. 

While MEA has purchased its power from neighboring Chugach Electric Association since the mid-1980s, its first power came from the original Eklutna Hydroelectric Plant operated by Anchorage Light and Power Company (now Municipal Light and Power). The shell of this historic structure still stands next to the site of the new, state-of-the-art Eklutna Generation Station (EGS) as a solid reminder of how it all began so many years ago.

Early on, the Palmer, Alaska-based cooperative made the decision to manage the Eklutna Generation Station project internally rather than handing responsibility for success or failure over to an outside firm. Management has brought together a formidable team of experts – designers, architects, engineers, construction companies, engine manufacturers - to help make EGS a reality. Every day a full-time contingent of MEA employees and contractors is on site at the Eklutna facility overseeing every aspect of this crucial project.

Ground was broken on the new plant, just off the Glenn Highway at the Eklutna interchange, in June of 2012. Construction began in earnest shortly thereafter as the cooperative worked to meet a tight deadline for completion. MEA’s power purchase agreement with Chugach concludes on December 31, 2014, so the cooperative must be ready to generate power for its more than 47,000 members by that date.

At the heart of the new generation facility are ten dual-fuel engines manufactured by Finnish manufacturer Wärtsilä. Each of these massive engines is approximately 15 feet wide, 19 feet tall, 65 feet long with the generators attached, and weighs in at an impressive 390 tons. The plant will operate primarily on natural gas, but can switch seamlessly on-the-fly to diesel in case of interruption to the natural gas supply to ensure that its 170-megawatt generation capacity remains available to its members.

Because of their sheer size, delivery of the ten Wärtsilä engines to the Eklutna site was a major logistical effort involving work by multiple partners on three continents. The engines arrived by ship at the Port of Anchorage and were moved to Eklutna by a special rail car that had to itself be brought to Alaska for the job. From Eklutna, each massive machine was carefully moved to the site, across the Glenn Highway, on a custom-designed heavy-haul truck with 18 axels and 144 tires. In all, the move from the Port to EGS took several weeks in August and September. 

While the engines and their generators are now on-site and in final position inside the newly constructed Power Block Building, there is still a lot of work left to do before the plant begins its testing period in the fall of 2014 prior to full commercial operation on January 1, 2015. Twin 500,000-plus-gallon diesel fuel tanks must be constructed, as well as the plant’s administration and warehouse buildings and switchyard. The cooperative is also working to complete a major transmission project to help efficiently bring the power from the new plant to its members.

MEA’s General Manager, Joe Griffith, is proud of his team’s progress and confident that the project will be completed on time. He also believes that EGS will have a major impact for the good on the overall Railbelt electrical grid. 

“EGS is one of the most significant construction projects in Southcentral Alaska at this time,” says Griffith. “So far, we have returned more than $80 million to our local economy in the form of contracts to Alaskan companies and companies hiring Alaskan labor. Couple that with the fact that nearly 200 workers are employed on site during construction, and it’s clear that this is a major economic boon to Alaska even before we generate the first megawatt of electricity. I couldn’t be more proud of my team or more pleased with the professionalism and timeliness of everyone associated with this project.

“The Railbelt is changing, and MEA is changing with it. The state-of-the-art technology and ultra-fuel-efficient generation of EGS will improve the Railbelt system’s flexibility so we can better respond to our rapidly evolving energy future. And I am confident that whatever the future might bring, we are ready to meet the challenge.”

‍Photos courtesy of MEA

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