Wrangell Municipal Light & Power will switch to diesel generation for the annual Tyee Lake maintenance and transmission line work beginning Thursday, June 11, and costly fuel prices could help inspire some energy conservation.

According to Superintendent David McHolland, the projected cost of running diesel power for the seven-day period is roughly $200,000, as they will be running two or three generators at the same time throughout the week, depending on the load.

He said they will burn an average of approximately 5,000 gallons of diesel each day.

“What that means to customers is that the (electricity) rate will be higher during that week,” he said. “The cost would approximately be about 36 cents per kilowatt hour. The average rate right now is right around 12 cents per kilowatt hour, so basically it’s triple the cost. The extent of the cost is determined by the people and their usage.”

McHolland suggested that during the period from June 11 to June 18, residents could reduce their use of heating and air conditioning and spend less time taking showers to save on hot water, if their hot water and heating systems run off electricity.

“What pulls the biggest load in most homes is the heating and air as well the hot water,” he said. “Reducing what you can in those areas will help keep costs down.”

Ideally, he said the Tyee maintenance work could be done in six days instead of seven and anything that can reduce the amount of diesel used will benefit customers.

“We want to burn as little diesel as possible,” he said. “Fuel costs keep going up and we want to avoid using more than necessary.”

The Southeast Alaska Power Agency owns and operates the Tyee hydropower station on the mainland to serve Wrangell and Petersburg. Each town maintains its own backup for when Tyee is out of service.

McHolland said his office will maintain close contact with the community for the week to communicate any changes to the Tyee Lake maintenance work.

Anyone with any questions or concerns regarding this year’s annual diesel run can call the department office at 907-874-3602 or email at wmlp@gci.net.