10/14/12 - 9:54pm
Alaska Electric Light and Power has erected a second barrier to the destructive power of avalanches.
Two large avalanches in the spring of 2008 and winter 2009 crippled several towers along a 43-mile power line route from the Snettisham Lake hydroelectric facility. AEL&P was forced to burn expensive diesel in its backup generators for weeks.
AEL&P received a $2 million grant from the State of Alaska’s Renewable Energy Fund to build a series of wedge-shaped metal avalanche diversion structure uphill of their vulnerable transmission towers.
