The Native Village of Kongiganak (NVK), governed by the Kongiganak Traditional Council, and its electric utility, Puvurnaq Power Company (PPC) operate a cutting-edge hybrid wind-diesel power plant. Five 95-kilowatt (kW) refurbished Windmatic turbines contribute renewable power to their diesel grid. Integration of a portion of excess wind power is achieved through the use of 20 residential electric thermal storage (ETS) stoves. NVK has secured funding to add another 30 stoves in the community to increase operational efficiency and maximize economic benefit of the wind-diesel plant.

During a powerful wind storm, one of the five wind turbines suffered a catastrophic failure. After the brakes failed to secure the rotor, the nacelle broke free from the tower, fell to the ground, and is beyond repair. 

Under this grant, NVK will replace the nacelle and upgrade the braking systems on all five wind turbines as a necessary operational improvement. This is the first instance in which this type of wind turbine has been installed in a location with such intense weather regimes, and upgraded braking systems will provide additional safeguards against total turbine loss in the future. 

The generation from all five wind turbines is needed to provide enough excess wind power for the currently installed and newly funded residential heating stoves. These stoves have saved, on average, 260 gallons of heating oil annually in homes where they are installed.

Background

The Kongiganak Traditional Council was awarded Strategic Technical Assistance Response Team (START) assistance from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Indian Energy Policy and Programs and the Denali Commission in 2013. This grant is a result of the technical assistance provided under that competition.

Kongiganak’s population grew from 439 in 2010 to 464 in 2012—an increase of more than 5%. Located on the west shore of Kuskokwim Bay, just west of the mouth of the Kuskokwim River, Kongiganak is 70 miles southwest of Bethel and 451 miles west of Anchorage.

The Native Village of Kongiganak is a member of the Chaninik Wind Group (CWG), a four-village consortium working on developing solutions for harnessing their local wind energy and maximizing the potential benefits through shared administrative capacity. The four villages (Kongiganak, Kwigillingok, Tuntutuliak, and Kipnuk) are in close proximity to each other in the lower Kuskokwim area.

Over the last eight years, Kongiganak, as a member of CWG, has worked to develop community-scale wind- based power systems. This required specialized technology that at low wind speeds results in a high contribution of wind energy to displace diesel electric generation and at modest and high wind speeds generates surplus energy that is captured and stored in electric thermal storage devices to heat homes. These systems are changing the economics of wind systems for villages. In addition to displacing large amounts of fuel at the utility, they generate surplus power that can be utilized to satisfy heating requirements around the community. Sold for $0.10/kilowatt/hour (kWh), which equates to $2.59/gallon diesel—electric heat from this system is much less expensive than the current $6.96/gallon that residents pay for heating fuel in lower Kuskokwim. This achieves the objectives of reducing dependency on diesel fuel, lowering energy costs to consumers, and increasing revenues to the local utility. 

There are 20 ETS unit stoves installed now. The excess wind energy generated by five wind turbines creates enough capacity to install approximately 30 more for a total of 50. The Alaska Energy Authority (AEA) recently recommended that Kongiganak apply for funding through the Renewable Energy Fund Round 7 for an additional 30 stoves. Final approval of AEA’s recommendations will come from the Alaska State Legislature by the end of May 2016. It is expected that the project will be funded.

Project Objectives

The goals of this project are to replace a single wind turbine nacelle, upgrade the braking systems on five wind turbines, and upgrade the monitoring and data collection unit at the powerhouse to ensure that enough energy is available to power the utility and all additional residential heating units.

Project Scope

Under this grant, the Tribe will upgrade existing turbine braking systems. Cold, dense winter winds contain more energy, which requires upgrading existing braking systems to provide additional cold weather protection to the machines. Improvements to the braking system will be engineered by a selected vendor. Installation will be completed by local crews and specialist technicians under direction of the project manager.

The Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition computer within the PPC utility will be upgraded with increased capacity and additional monitoring software to assist in more comprehensive collection of high-speed operational data and system information. Additionally, the replacement wind turbine nacelle and blade set will be installed.

Project Location

Located on the west shore of Kuskokwim Bay, just west of the mouth of the Kuskokwim River, Kongiganak is 70 miles southwest of Bethel and 451 miles west of Anchorage.