The Homer Electric Association hosted a luncheon meeting on Wednesday, November 1st, to offer updates on renewable energy projects, wildfires, outages, and cyber security. HEA General Manager Brad Janorschke presented a 15 slide PowerPoint to showcase what projects are currently happening.
When it comes to the Cook Inlet Platform Wind Project, HEA is on phase 1, which is data collection.
“We got approved for to study for sites on the Kenai Peninsula or when we didn’t get approved to install wind we got approved to study the wind. As you may or may not be aware, there are a lot of federal funding opportunities right now for primarily wind and solar and there’s some other projects as well.”
The final design would include an AEA 2022 grant worth $885,000. A Federal Legislative Appropriation worth $875,000 was also recently awarded.
Wildfires are an extreme concern for the company. When trees are too close to the powerlines, the trees can catch on fire, and cause severe damage to the environment. Not only that, but it’s a safety hazard for the individuals who are deployed to fix the issue. And it ruins communications for everyone. In order to combat this, Janorschke wanted to let the community know that the company is ready to help take care of the issue before it becomes a serious problem.
“So if you’ve got a tree leaning towards the line, leaning towards your like our power line, give us a call. We’d be happy to cut it down. And we’ll send somebody out. By the way, there’s no charge to you.”
Besides wildfires, the are also other nature-related issues that affect the efficiency of HEA. For instance, Janorschke recalls the labor day windstorm, and how it affected 18,371 members. At that time, 206 trees were removed. To help ease tensions during power outages, HEA improved their outage maps, including now the status of outages, and the causes of outages.
Cyber security is a big safety concern for the association. To ensure that every individual is safe, HEA have added additional safety features such as multifactor authentication, internet access restrictions, advanced firewall systems, technology to protect your personal data, and staff education and training. Janorschke warns users to not fall for scammers tricks. If you ever receive a phone call with threats to turn off your power if you don’t offer personal information, hang up the phone and call the association directly.
