Northwest Arctic Borough – 2021 Project

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

Northwest Arctic Borough – 524 Kilowatts of Power Addition in Ambler, Alaska

Aerial view of Alaska

The Ambler Northwest Energy Tribal Energy Development Organization (ANE-TEDO) received an award from the Office of Indian Energy Policy and Programs to install additional power generation into a community-scale microgrid energy system to support autonomous operation in Ambler, Alaska. The project will increase reliability and affordability by reducing reliance on air shipments of diesel fuel.

Project Overview

Tribe/Awardee:Ambler Northwest Energy Tribal Energy Development Organization (ANE-TEDO)
Location:Ambler, Alaska
Project Title:524 Kilowatts of Power Addition in Ambler, Alaska
DOE Grant Number:DE-IE0000196
Projected Impacts:Energy Affordability: Expected to save $6 million over the 25-year project life. 
Energy Addition: Projected to increase energy supply by 33%. 
Energy Reliability: Will supplement 800 hours of diesels operations annually, reducing maintenance, outages and preventing water freeze-ups.
Project Amounts:DOE Office of Indian Energy: $3,435,988
Awardee Cost-Share: $381,875
Total: $3,817,863
Project Period of Performance:Start: May 2026

Project Description

The integrated energy system will power Ambler, a traditional Iñupiaq Village, and significantly reduce its reliance on imported diesel fuel. The project will install a 524- kilowatt (kW) power generation system using local resources, which will be integrated into a microgrid system that includes a 500kW power conversion system, a 1.0 megawatt hour (MWh) battery energy storage system (BESS), an electric boiler, and a microgrid controller. The microgrid will allow for more reliable, and autonomous operation. The Native Village of Ambler will establish an Independent Power Producer (IPP) to sell the output to the Alaska Village Electric Cooperative (AVEC), Ambler's electric utility.

About the Ambler Northwest Energy Tribal Energy Development Organization

The Ambler Northwest Energy Tribal Energy Development Organization (ANE-TEDO is a collaboration between the Native Village of Ambler, a federally recognized Tribe, and the Northwest Arctic Borough, the municipal governmental entity for the region, supporting 11 Native communities across approximately 39,000 square miles in the northwest Arctic region of Alaska. The community in Ambler is highly isolated and often dependent on airplane delivered diesel fuel to provide for all the community’s electric and space heating needs and all imported goods.

Resources