Nothing affects everyone in town more than electricity. Well, maybe the weather, but there’s not much anyone can do about that, other than invest in rain gear.

An equally good investment is learning more about plans to meet the region’s growing demand for electricity, keeping the supply grid stable and dependable.

For that, the community is invited to a borough assembly town hall at 6 p.m. Wednesday, May 6, at the Nolan Center, where the Southeast Alaska Power Agency will share its plans for what the assembly notice calls “SEAPA Grid Reliability and Stability Project in Wrangell.”

Neither the borough nor the power agency is sharing specific details of the project in advance of the meeting, but it looks to be part of an ongoing effort to ensure that the lights and motors stay on and that any interruptions are minimal and manageable.

That means ensuring sufficient power if the borough and JAG Marine Group are successful in putting together a viable economic plan for a shipyard at the 6-Mile Mill site, along with other industrial users at the property.

It means backup power. And it means managing for reliability of the electrical grid that Wrangell shares with Petersburg and Ketchikan.

Wrangell is fortunate to have enjoyed stable power rates since the Tyee Lake hydroelectric plant went online in 1984. Many communities in Alaska, particularly in rural areas, still burn a lot of costly diesel fuel to generate power, an expense that Wrangell only pays when Tyee is down or cannot meet demand.

To ensure that happens as little as possible, SEAPA plans to install a third generator next year at Tyee to boost the plant’s maximum output capacity by 50%.

But there is more to the overall reliability and grid stability project than the third generator — maybe some solar power. The Southeast Alaska Power Agency will be at the town hall to share details of its plan and to take questions from the community.

The public should turn the clock ahead for an early dinner on May 6, then turn off the lights at home and turn up at the Nolan Center to learn more.