The Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium (ANTHC) will provide technical assistance to rural tribal communities across all regions of Alaska, targeting energy solutions for public infrastructure. The overarching goal is to develop reliable engineering documents and appropriate financial assessments, providing tribes with the necessary tools to seek grant and loan financing to develop energy projects. It is ANTHC’s goal that at least 50% of the projects identified during technical assistance acquire funding for implementation.

ANTHC was formed in 1997 as a nonprofit IRS 501(c)(3) organization to manage statewide health services for Alaska Natives. It serves all 229 tribes and more than 150,000 American Indians and Alaska Natives across Alaska. ANTHC’s Division of Environmental Health and Engineering (DEHE) provides engineering and project support to rural tribal communities across Alaska.

In 2010 DEHE’s Rural Energy Initiative was formally established to undertake energy audits and has since expanded its scope to address appropriate energy solutions. This project will provide ANTHC with the ability to expand the reach of technical assistance services to assist tribes in identifying needs, target worthwhile projects, identify potential capital funding, and move well-defined concepts toward project implementation to reduce energy use in public facilities.

The intent of this project is to provide technical assistance to rural tribal communities across all regions of Alaska, focusing on community energy solutions for public infrastructure. ANTHC will conduct a program initiation phase that will include marketing and creating a technical assistance request framework for interested communities to apply for technical assistance under the program.

ANTHC’s objective is to provide a minimum of 15 engineering feasibility studies for capital projects and 15 level three energy audits over 3 years to tribal communities across Alaska. An additional objective is to provide technical review of 15 previously developed engineering plans or funded projects for tribal communities requesting review from a third party. The final objective under the TA program is to provide financial analysis and funding source identification for at least 15 projects over the course of this grant.

The overarching goal of this effort is to develop reliable engineering documents and accurate economic assessments to provide tribes with the necessary tools to seek grant and loan financing to develop energy projects. A related goal is for at least 50% of the projects identified during technical assistance to acquire funding for design and construction. As projects are funded and move to implementation, ANTHC engineering and project management staff will be available as a resource to provide ongoing assistance as needed.

The technical assistance needs of Alaska Native communities are varied. One of the primary needs for technical assistance is identifying and developing projects to improve energy performance of nonresidential, noncommercial facilities. For these types of facilities, the following key areas of technical assistance are proposed to develop projects:

1. Energy audits and energy efficiency project development
2. Feasibility studies for capital projects
3. Financing acquisition assistance
4. Review of funding applications and engineering plan sets.

Based on previous experience and the known quantity of public infrastructure without recent energy improvement projects in Alaska Native communities, ANTHC estimates that the energy project development technical support could produce $1 million in annual savings. Specific measurable outcomes of this effort include a variety of tangible deliverable documents that will help tribes develop energy projects and overcome the barriers limiting implementation of tribal energy projects. Additional measureable outcomes include total projects developed and percentage of developed projects that are funded.

ANTHC is a statewide inter-tribal organization that serves all 229 tribes and more than 150,000 American Indians and Alaska Natives across Alaska. As such, this application includes all regions and tribes in Alaska.

The project was competitively selected under the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Indian Energy’s Fiscal Year 2016 funding opportunity announcement “Establishment of an Inter-tribal Technical Assistance Energy Providers Network” (DE-FOA-0001453) and started in September 2016.

The November 2016, November 2017, and May 2019 project status reports provide more information.