Alaska regulators deny green power group’s request for utility data

The Alaska Regulatory Commission, which oversees the state’s electric utility, has denied an advocacy group’s request for usage data for tens of thousands of individual customers of the Chugach Power Association, an Anchorage-based cooperative.

The Renewable Energy Alaska Project (REAP) had asked the commission to compel Chugach to submit the data as it considers the utility’s recent proposal to increase rates. REAP said it needed the information to propose alternative new pricing structures to utilities, aimed at conserving natural gas supplies amid the impending natural gas shortage.

Chugach and many other power companies had opposed the request, saying it would be labor-intensive and an invasion of customer privacy. Conservative-leaning advocacy groups and media outlets sympathetic to the oil and gas industry also sounded the alarm about the potential release of the data.

Nolan Oliver, an administrative law judge appointed by the commission, denied REAP’s request in a ruling last week. In a four-paragraph analysis, Oliver said the group “has not sufficiently articulated the benefits of its rate design over the alternatives.”

Oliver said the “burden and expense” of creating the data would outweigh its benefits, citing Chugach’s claim that creating the data would require thousands of dollars and more than 100 hours of employee time. .

Chris Rose, executive director of REAP, said in an email that his group rejects this decision and what he calls “justified requests to deny requests for data essential to developing rate designs that promote conservation.” “We are disappointed that we are unable to provide a legal reason,” he said. Natural gas use required by state law. ”

“With natural gas shortages looming in Cook Inlet, REAP will continue to work in the public interest to preserve the region’s rapidly dwindling local gas supplies,” Rose wrote. “We hope Chugach Electric will work with us to find a way to do that.”

This work was originally northern journala newsletter published by Nathaniel Hertz. Subscribe here.