Alaska Railbelt Cooperative Transmission & Electric Company

Alaska’s Railbelt region stretches from the Kenai Peninsula north more than 500 miles to Fairbanks. This portion of our state, named for areas reached by the Railroad, is home to 70 percent of Alaska’s population. Combined, the Railbelt uses less electricity than a small utility in the Lower 48. Even still, we have six utilities that serve this relatively small amount of electricity over a very large and diverse territory. MEA alone has over 4,000 miles of power lines.

In an unprecedented move on January 7, 2011, five Railbelt utilities created a new Generation and Transmission utility, the Alaska Railbelt Cooperative Transmission and Energy Company (ARCTEC) to collectively deal with Railbelt energy needs and challenges. After a lengthy initial meeting in the Chugach Electric Board room, Rick Schikora was named Chairman of the Board and MEA’s General Manager, Joe Griffith was named President.

The five utilities include Chugach Electric Association (CEA), Matanuska Electric Association (MEA), Homer Electric Association (HEA), Seward Electrical System (SES) and Golden Valley Electric Association (GVEA). Municipal Light and Power (ML&P) is the only Railbelt utility to decline membership but will participate and provide ongoing support to ARCTEC.

Two board members from each of the founding utilities comprise the ten member board. Along with Chairman Schikora the slate of new officers include Vice Chairman Brad Janorschke from HEA, Secretary Janet Kincaid from MEA, and Treasurer is Willard Dunham, Mayor of Seward. “This is a momentous occasion. In its fifty year history, the Railbelt utilities have never achieved this level of cooperation until today. We will collectively speak as one body and I am honored to be Chairman of such a progressive body as ARCTEC,” stated Chairman Schikora.

Newly elected President, Joe Griffith stated, “Our new board immediately began working today and successfully finalized our legislative agenda.”. ARCTEC will focus on centralizing efforts to manage future power projects, obtain state funding for electrical infrastructure projects and programs, construct such projects when requested by the member utilities and collectively deal with Railbelt energy needs. “ARCTEC is a win/win for the State of Alaska and for every citizen who lives along the Railbelt. Our challenges are daunting but as the new President I have absolute faith that ARCTEC is an innovative step forward in finding solutions to our energy future. For twenty years I have worked to make this G&T a collective voice and today that vision is reality.” stated Griffith.