NANA Regional Corporation – 2016 Project

NOTE: Project pages are being updated regularly to reflect changes, if any; however, some of the information may be dated.

Summary

The NANA Regional Corporation proposes to create an Inter-Tribal Technical Assistance Network in the Northwest Arctic that will develop sustainable utility business plans and practices to facilitate deployment of high-penetration wind-solar-storage-diesel hybrid systems, provide workforce training and capacity development, and lay the foundation for a Regional Energy Authority for the 11 tribal communities in the NANA Region.

The overall aim of this technical assistance effort is to reduce fossil fuel use and energy costs by approximately 7% across the region through improved management and efficiency—both generation and end use—along with establishing a framework for an integrated, self-supporting, energy-focused regional entity to support all communities and business enterprises in the northwest Arctic.

The NANA Regional Corporation was formed in 1971 under the Alaska Native Land Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA). There are 11 villages in this remote region with a total population of approximately 7,500. Well over 80% of the people in the NANA Region are Alaska Native or American Indian. Along with all the tribal communities, NANA partners with other regional entities on economic development, environmental conservation, and related quality-of-life issues,

The energy vision and specific goals that emerged from planning efforts initiated nearly a decade ago, established a focus on self-sufficiency through harvesting locally available energy sources, from wind and sun to coal and conservation, along with energy efficiency and job creation.

Reflective of NANA’s and the region’s leadership on energy issues for many years are the numerous studies and past work in wind and solar photovoltaic energy development conducted in many communities across the region. Project development could benefit from systematic data collection and analysis, which the Inter-Tribal Technical Assistance Network in the Northwest Arctic aims to do as part of service delivery and capacity building in the region. This project will expand upon the existing Northwest Arctic Energy Steering Committee (ESC), which involves all tribal communities, municipalities, and other regional entities.

Shared challenges, including diesel dependency in remote locations, climate change impacting energy availability, coordination of fuel purchases, and energy infrastructure planning, have driven the region to cooperate and share solutions and opportunities where possible. The essence of this project is that by working together and learning from each other and outside experts, the region can harness locally available resources and cultural cohesion to improve economies, develop and disseminate best practices, and leverage existing successes and partnerships.

The successful implementation of this project and related projects aligns with the tribal, corporate, community, and regional goals of reducing diesel fuel consumption and energy costs, increasing energy self-reliance, promoting economic development, and environmental stewardship as it relates to protecting both the climate and surrounding lands. 

The overall aim of this technical assistance initiative is to reduce fossil fuel use and energy costs by 7% across the region, primarily through improved powerhouse operations, renewables and energy efficiency deployment, and coordinated bulk purchasing, along with establishing a framework for an integrated, self-supporting, noenergy-focused regional entity to support all communities and business enterprises in the northwest Arctic.

This project will substantially bolster NANA’s capacity, spread success and opportunity more uniformly throughout the region, and accelerate achievement of the organization’s goals.

The objectives under this initiative include:

1. Increase frequency of the ESC meetings.
2. Integrate technical training sessions to coordinate with ESC events.
3. Develop community-specific utility/energy prefeasibility-level briefings for each participating community
4. Disseminate arctic application technology reviews for the benefit of participating tribal communities.
5. Promote economies of scale in energy and power projects for the NANA Region teleconference meetings with regionwide stakeholders and community-specific meetings.
6. Undertake feasibility level analysis on the creation of a regionwide energy/utility authority.

The proposed project activities are based on goals and needs of the region, ranging from individual village impact to national engagement. They include:

• Expanding ESC meetings from a one-day meeting once per year to two workshops annually that will target specific topics
• Training community participants to collect appropriate data for individual village and regional planning and economic evaluation
• Providing each village with a prefeasibility study/action plan based on data collected and analysis
• Performing technical assessments of particular technology applications potentially appropriate for remote, northwest arctic communities
• Expanding on prefeasibility studies/action plans and incorporating data collection and analysis to develop sustainable (financial and technical) programs for each village and the region
• Posting lessons learned and distilled from other locations and within the region, as applicable,on the website and distributing them to all participants
• Developing a white paper that encapsulates the next level of planning and analysis, focused on regional energy self-sufficiency, improved economies, regulatory and institutional considerations, and strategic collaborations
• Participating in regional, statewide, and national venues and collaborating closely with the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Indian Energy’s Inter-tribal Technical Assistance Energy Providers Network.

This technical assistance initiative will take place in the NANA Region, which is located in northwest Alaska and encompasses 38,000 square miles, most of which is above the Arctic Circle. The 11 villages in this region include Ambler, Buckland, Deering, Kiana, Kobuk, Kotzebue, Noatak, Noorvik, Selawik, and Shungnak.

The project was competitively selected under the 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 project is complete. For details, see the final report and project status reports.