Project in Eagle Alaska

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Project in Eagle Alaska

• 2008 Alaska Federation of Natives
• Convention
• October 2008
• Anchorage, Alaska
• Presentation by
• Alaska Power Telephone

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Yukon River Hydrokinetic Turbine Project

• Project Overview
• Hydrokinetic Turbine Project Timeline
• APT began studying the feasibility of low-head
  hydro generation in the late 90s
• Collaborating with UEK Corp. APT decided to
  proceed with developing plans for installing a
  small hydrokinetic station in Eagle
• Today with a grant from the State of Alaska
  Denali Commission we are involved in engineering
  and design activities.
• The four year project will determine the
  viability of the turbine and associated
  technologies for operation in rural arctic Alaska
  
• Short Term engineering construction - first
  two years
• Mid Term - operation and monitoring 2-3 yrs
  following commissioning
• Long Term - after completion of the project and
  into the future

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• The City of Eagle Alaska, located on the Yukon
  River. The city is east of Fairbanks near the
  Canadian border. APT provides electricity and
  telephone services to the residents of the city
  and to Eagle Village a tribal community located
  upriver. The maximum electrical load in Eagle
  varies seasonally with the maximum load occurring
  in the winter at about 150 kW.

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Aerial photo of the City of Eagle and the
location of major project features. Note the boat
launch which will be used to deploy the turbine
equipment. The turbine location is approximately
2500 feet downstream of the boat launch. You can
also see in the photo the tour boat Yukon Queen
docked just upriver of the boat launch.
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The turbine will be deployed from the boat launch
using a truck mounted winch. It will be guided
into position with workboats and fastened to its
mooring lines. The power cable will be connected
to the turbine and laid across the river bottom
to shore where it will be buried and routed to
the converter station. This converter station
location was chosen primarily for its proximity
to the utilities 3 phase power transmission lines
that run overhead along the adjacent road.
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This is a view of the boat launch area to the
left you see the city and to the right you see
Belle Island. The turbine equipment will be
assembled adjacent to the boat launch and
deployed into the river using a truck mounted
winch stationed at the boat launch and workboats
on the river to guide the equipment into
position.
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TerraSond workboat with crew performing river
survey activities. Site specific surveys were
performed to more accurately determine the best
project approach and provide a means to correlate
USGS survey data of the Yukon river at Eagle to
the project
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In addition to the bathymetry and velocity
surveys TerraSond also performed a acoustic sub
bottom surveys and took material samples from the
bottom to provide data for the mooring anchor
engineering.
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Yukon River Hydrokinetic Turbine Project

• Evolution of the turbine design
• Original Ideas
• Bottom mounted and or kited turbine.
• Flight technology promised to allow turbine to
  operate at the best point in the water column but
  technology was in early stage of development
• Could operate all year long located in the river
  below the ice but maintenance and evaluation
  would be very difficult and would require removal
  prior to ice break-up to prevent potential loss
• Low velocities near the bottom were used to
  calculate energy production which turned out to
  be very low
• Todays Plans
• Barge mounted turbine.
• Highest velocities found near the surface of the
  river
• Turbine easily accessible for maintenance and
  evaluation.

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The Yukon River at the time of break-up in
spring. The scrapping of the ice can be very
destructive and there will be no permanent
project structures located in the river. The
turbine and power cable will be removed prior to
ice forming in late fall.
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Sketch of current plan to deploy the turbine. The
turbine will be supported from a pontoon barge on
the surface of the river. A buoy will be deployed
in front of the barge to help deflect larger
debris and to train the mooring cable at the
proper depth to the turbine barge.
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Sketch of barge with the turbine deployed. Note
trash screen to protect the turbine from river
borne debris. The turbine can be raised with
hoists to allow service and inspection from the
deck of the barge.
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