4 AUGUST 2006 ALASKA VILLAGE

Nunapitchuk/Kasigluk/Akula Heights Projects

Residents of Nunapitchuk, Kasi-gluk and Akula Heights are starting to reap the benefi ts of a group of large, complex projects constructed in their communities over the past couple of years. The Denali Com-mission and Rural Utilities Service provided funding for these projects to increase power generating ef-fi ciency and reliability and help re-duce the cost of generating power.

The projects included upgrading existing bulk fuel systems, provid-ing wind generation, switching the backup generator in Akula Heights to Nunapitchuk and building a new main power plant in Akula Heights, using recovered heat from the power plant for community buildings, and upgrading the intertie between the three communities.

An undertaking of this magnitude involves cooperation between many individuals and organizations to de-cide on issues like site selection, per-mitting, project design, obtaining nec-essary rights-of-way and developing a business plan to ensure sustainability. Other participants in this project are: Kasigluk, Inc.; Kasigluk Traditional

The photos on the bottom left show Nunapitchuk’s plant operator, Golga Frederick, standing inside and outside of the power plant on the last day of operation in Nunapitchuk. The upper left photo shows the power plant module being moved to Akula Heights to be placed and integrated into the new power plant (photo upper right). The photo on the bottom right shows the backup generator being moved from Kasigluk to Nunapitchuk to provide backup power generation when needed.

The new, automated, modular-style power plant at Akula Heights. by Amy Murphy

Story continued on page 8; photos on page 5.

ALASKA VILLAGE AUGUST 2006 5

The photos on the left show the new, elevated, bulk fuel tank farm in Akula Heights and some of the local residents that were trained as welders and hired to work on the projects. The middle photo shows the huge tent that provided workers a warm, sheltered place to fabricate (weld) tanks and paint components of the different projects. This enclosed tent allowed work to continue year round and provided some local jobs. One photo on the left shows a section of a wind turbine tower that was painted inside the tent.

The top three photos on the right show some of the distribution work involved in the projects.

One photo shows a portion of the new intertie that was constructed. Sam Lindquist (left, on pole) and another AVEC lineman are framing a new power pole and below them a crane is shown driving piles for anchoring

the new poles. The photo on the bottom right shows one of the three wind turbines being erected.

Continued on page 8.

8 AUGUST 2006 ALASKA VILLAGE

Council; the City of Nunapitchuk; and Lower Kuskokwim School District.

The following fi rms provided ser-vices for various parts of the project: STG, Inc. provided overall construc-tion management; Hattenburg Dilley & Linnel provided the majority of the layout and overall project design, par-ticularly related to civil engineering; Coffman Engineers designed the wind turbine foundations; and Dryden & LaRue and Nana Pacifi c designed the intertie upgrades and river crossing.

AVEC’s engineering staff designed the majority of the Akula Heights power plant and Nunapitchuk standby generator module. AVEC’s operations department completed the majority of the power plant, standby module and intertie construction.

Project SummaryFollowing is a summary of the up-

grades for Nunapitchuk, Akula Heights and Kasigluk.

Old Kasigluk Upgrades• Remove from service the school’s

old tank farm. • Install a new 1000-gallon interme-

diate tank at existing school tank farm.• Take the existing washeteria

tank farm out of service and install a new double-wall tank near the exist-ing washeteria site for the Kasigluk Traditional Council.

Akula Heights Upgrades • Provide a new co-located tank

farm near the community center with individual cells for AVEC, the school, and Kasigluk, Inc.

• Locate a new power plant east of the proposed tank farm location.

• Install new dispensers for gaso-line and diesel at the river with dis-tribution piping from the co-located Kasigluk, Inc. tanks.

• Supply community buildings

with recovered heat from AVEC’s power plant.

• Provide school with a new inter-mediate fuel storage tank.

• Develop the wind generation site south of the power plant.

Nunapitchuk Upgrades• Take the existing AVEC power

plant and tank farm out of service.• Take the teacher housing tank

farm (old school) out of service. • Install the backup generator from

Kasigluk.

Intertie Upgrades• Upgrade existing distribution

intertie between Nunapitchuk, Akula Heights and Old Kasigluk.

Alternative Energy• Develop wind generation and

access at Akula Heights. • Install power line extension to

the wind site.• Provide for recovered heat from

the new AVEC power plant to local community buildings.

Amalgamated ApproachSince these projects are all inter-

related, AVEC and the other partici-pants agreed to work on them using an amalgamated, or consolidated, ap-proach. This allowed the construction management team to maximize the various resources on hand, resulting in cost savings.

For example, heavy equipment, like a crane, can be brought in and used on the different projects, instead of ship-ping heavy equipment into and out of the village for projects constructed at different times.

A lot of the work involving the use of heavy equipment and pile driving for foundations was done during the winter when the ground was frozen to minimize impact to the environment.

Local HireAVEC and the Denali Commis-

sion support and encourage local hire for the projects we work on. In anticipation of needing trained weld-ers, AVEC’s construction manager, STG, Inc., provided welding training for the following Kasigluk residents: Moses White Jr.; Gerald Dementieff III; Gabriel Guest; Wilson Twitchell; Stanley Berlin; Walter Anvil; Patrick Beaver; and Janelle Maxie.

Each student received at least one certifi cation in “Butt-Joint Fillet Welds” and were later hired to work on the projects. A total of 2,400 man-hours were involved in this particular program, providing an initial local payroll in excess of $16,000.

The local payroll amount increased after that as local residents were hired to work on various projects over the past three seasons. The average local hire rate for the projects (to date) are: 2004 - 64%; 2005 - 16%; and 2006 - 9% Kasigluk and 16% Nunapitchuk.

Thank You!The projects aren’t fully completed

yet, but AVEC would like to express sincere appreciation to everybody involved in this huge undertaking, es-pecially the personnel working in the fi eld, the power plant operators and the residents who had to put up with a lot of noise, disruption and strangers.

It was a hard decision to select the new plant site in a different com-munity as it meant the loss of jobs for Nunapitchuk’s plant operators. However, we heard one Nunapitchuk elder is happy the power plant moved out of town because now his house is more peaceful and quiet!

Thanks to continued funding from the Denali Commission, AVEC is up-grading our generating facilities, one community at a time. Quyana.

Nunapitchuk Projects, con’t from pg. 4