CEA Candidate Questions: Bettina Chastain

Voting in Chugach Electric Association’s board election will open on April 19. Electronic ballots are due by 3 p.m. on May 19. Paper ballots must be received by May 18. Members can also vote in person at the CEA Annual Meeting held at Changepoint Alaska on May 19 at 6 p.m. More information on voting and candidates can be found on the CEA Election page.

Here are the answers from Bettina Chastain. Chastain is an executive and engineering consultant with a background in chemical engineering. She has been a member of the CEA Board since 2015, and currently serves as Board Chair. She is also a member of the Board at the Alaska Dance Theater. Her full candidate profile can be found here. She also has a campaign website and campaign Facebook page.

Bettina Chastain, from her CEA candidate profile

1. Why do you want to be an CEA board member?

I am currently serving on the CEA Board and have the role of Board Chair. I am proud to have provided strong and stable leadership for CEA through times of challenge and change and it has been a privilege to represent the member-owners of our cooperative for the last 8 years.

I was raised in Alaska and have raised my own family in Anchorage. I have been a member of Chugach Electric for over 30 years and have multiple properties in the service territory. I am running for re-election because I see the benefit of serving the community that I love. My experience as a business owner, executive, and professional engineer has allowed me to be a productive and valuable member of the CEA Board. My experience of working hard for CEA has provided me with a deep knowledge and understanding of the complex issues and challenges that CEA faces today and provides me a strong foundation to continue to make the important decisions that shape the future of our cooperative and our state.

If re-elected, I will work hard to maintain reliable service and rate stability/affordability for all members. I will focus on developing balanced solutions for diversifying our generation portfolio with cleaner energy sources, where economic, while providing energy security and protection of the cooperative’s existing investments and assets.

2. Are there any particular policies you would champion as a member of the Board? Are there any current or proposed policies you would oppose?

The Chugach Board develops policies and procedures that govern our business with prudent, ethical and legal business practices. We adopt new policies as warranted and revise and modify existing policies to adapt to the changing business environment over time.

Additionally, the Board sets goals and outlines the strategic initiatives that will help us achieve these goals, as they provide a guide for setting the priorities and allocating the resources that are required to achieve these strategic objectives for a sustainable future.

I support the following seven strategic priorities that are outlined in our board’s current Strategic Plan (can be found on the Chugach Electric Website):

1. Safety

2. Decarbonization

3. Integration Synergies & Cost Savings

4. Communication, Member Engagement & Community Involvement

5. Natural Gas Supply

6. Business Planning and Economic Development

7. Leadership, Management & Employee Development

3. What are the biggest challenges CEA will face in the next five to ten years? What can be done to prepare to meet them?

The biggest challenges facing Chugach Electric and the Railbelt utilities today are in developing solutions to address the energy transition from an 80% reliance on natural gas generation to a more diversified and sustainable energy portfolio, which includes more clean energy sources, while maintaining affordable rates and reliability. A balanced energy transition has to occur starting now to ensure that our dependence on Cook Inlet gas is addressed prior to the end of our current gas contract expiration in 2028. Solutions must address long-term reliability and the affordability of energy for our ratepayers, the community and the State of Alaska.

We need to maintain and build out the necessary transmission system upgrades over the next 10 years to ensure reliable service for the entire Railbelt system/grid, while maintaining and protecting the investments that we have in existing assets. Natural gas generation assets will by necessity remain a big part of the generation mix, certainly over the next decade, and will be needed to provide the bridge through the impending energy transition.

4. In 2022 CEA’s Board spent over 60% of their regular public board meetings in Executive Session. While Executive Sessions are sometimes necessary, their extensive use excludes member-owners from significant discussions of issues such as strategic planning and sources of power generation. Do you believe that cooperative boards have an obligation to their member-owners to maximize the openness and transparency of their decision making? Should CEA’s Board minimize its use of Executive Session? What could be done to achieve this goal?

The Chugach Electric Board meetings are open to the public and we regularly have active member participation in both our Board and committee meetings in our member comment section of each meeting. Agendas are set and meetings are conducted according to the meeting requirements of the governing Alaska Statutes for Electric and Telephone Cooperatives. All topics are discussed in open public session and only those matters that may have an adverse affect on the cooperative's legal or financial position, or those that are related to personnel matters, are conducted in executive session, accordingly.

The Chugach Board is well aware of the recent commentary on transparency issues in the boardroom being made by the public/Special Interest Groups and extra measures have been put in place recently to ensure these concerns have been addressed.

It is not clear to me whether or not the 60% of the reported time that the Chugach Board spent in 2022 is an appropriate or accurate reflection of the Board’s actual time spent in executive session. Every year the Board deals with a variety of issues that relate to legal, financial and personnel matters and 2022 was an exceptional year in that the Board was engaged in both conducting a search and hiring for a new CEO, among other matters.

5. Hilcorp has said that it cannot guarantee natural gas supplies from Cook Inlet beyond its current contracts (CEA’s contract with Hilcorp ends in 2028). Production for CEA’s Beluga River Unit is currently expected to end in 2033. What strategies should CEA use to address potential future shortfalls in Cook Inlet natural gas?

As a Board member it is the top priority for Chugach and the other Railbelt utilities to secure a long-term natural gas supply solution to provide energy security for the future and as a bridge in the transition to integrating more renewable energy sources into the system. As an Alaskan it only makes sense to identify and support all of the available in- state gas options that could meet Chugach’s 2028 gas supply contract end date with Hilcorp for predicted gas supply shortages from the Cook Inlet Basin.

Upon the announcement from Hilcorp in April of 2022, and confirmation from the recent DNR study that Cook Inlet gas supply shortages are inevitable in the 2028 timeframe, the Chugach Board embarked on a study to identify long-term gas supply solutions that will provide energy security for the future of the cooperative.

Currently 80% of our power is produced from natural gas (thermal generation) from Cook Inlet. From a realistic and practical understanding of what options are available to Chugach and the other Railbelt utilities that could be implemented within the next 4 to 5 years to resolve the gas shortage issue, it is highly likely that some form of LNG import will need to be considered in order to maintain reliable service. In-State pipeline options to provide North Slope gas to Southcentral are being considered but if one of these projects is not sanctioned soon (within a year) either temporary or more permanent LNG imports would have to be prioritized as the only viable option.

6. In recent years many have argued that there needs to be greater collaboration among the Railbelt utilities, leading to the creation of the Railbelt Reliability Council (RRC) in 2022. Do you believe that utility Board Directors have a role in fostering greater collaboration and integration among Railbelt utilities, or should they defer to staff on these questions? What can board members do to facilitate greater cooperation?

The utilities have been working together and coordinating efforts to address some of the most critical issues and concerns that affect the ratepayers in terms of reliability and sustainability of the Railbelt for the future.

The Railbelt utilities have formed a working group that is developing a strategy to address long-term gas supply solutions to reduce our dependence on Cook Inlet gas, while providing energy security during the transition to a more diversified and cleaner generation portfolio. Natural gas will necessarily continue to be an important piece of the generation portfolio into the future and the utilities will need to work together and with the State to determine the best path forward to provide that long-term energy security.

As we undergo the energy transition to cleaner/renewable generation sources there will be an increased need to work with the other utilities along the Railbelt in order to ensure transmission resilience and reliability across the State.

7. The Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) proposal introduced last year by Governor Dunleavy was recently reintroduced in the Alaska Legislature (HB 121 and SB 101). This bill would require utilities to reach 80% renewable power generation by 2040 with intermediate targets along the way. Last year the Railbelt utilities supported amendments that pushed back the milestones and changed the RPS into Clean Energy Standards (CES) that included nuclear power and gas generation technologies (waste heat recovery) that the utilities already have in place. Do you support either the RPS or CES? If so, which do you believe would better serve Alaskans? What role should the Board have in advocacy for either?

Chugach needs to move towards a more diversified generation portfolio for a sustainable future. Our current generation mix is 81% natural gas, 17% hydro and 2% wind. The Chugach Board recently developed a carbon reduction goal for its strategic plan of at least 35% by 2030 and 50% by 2040. I support this aggressive but attainable goal that was developed based on a realistic timeline and the technical viability of integrating more clean energy sources (where economic) into the current grid.

8. How do you think CEA can best take advantage of the many federal infrastructure incentives and grants created under programs such as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)?

We will require a more robust and resilient transmission system in the Railbelt to ensure system reliability as we transition to the integration of new large-scale clean energy projects throughout the State. Current estimates indicate that the required transmission system upgrades that will allow for balancing of power from these new renewable generation sources across the grid will cost upwards of $2 to $3 billion.

The Railbelt utilities have been working together to identify and obtain the federal funding sources that are available within the IIJA (Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act) and specifically through the GRIP (Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnership) program to help pay for these required transmission infrastructure projects.