Alaska Energy Data Gateway 2.0 Released

The Alaska Center for Energy and Power (UAF-ACEP), Institute of Social and Economic Research (UAA-ISER), and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) are pleased to announce a major upgrade of the Alaska Energy Data Gateway ("The Gateway"). The Gateway, which was first released in 2013, provides Alaska communities and project developers data to make informed decisions prior to undertaking rural energy projects. ACEP and ISER originally developed the Alaska Energy Data Gateway with a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy's EPSCoR program. Subsequent funding from the Alaska Energy Authority made it possible to incorporate additional information on renewable and non-renewable energy projects from across Alaska.

Ability to search for community-level capacity data to undertake new energy projects

Recent enhancements have made the Gateway a multi-purpose data portal that stores and disseminates the energy, social, and economic data that communities-and project developers-need to make informed decisions about energy systems. Users can search by Alaska community for information to help determine whether specific communities have data detailing the financial and technical capacities-and the skilled people-to develop sustainable energy systems. A new interactive search tool-the Community Metric Explorer-also makes it easier to find information from across the state. The upgraded system also allows individuals from communities to submit data for future inclusion in the Gateway.

Updated and new data
Upgrades to the Gateway also include updated and new datasets, which were added with assistance from the First Alaskans Institute Summer Internship Program. New and/or updated datasets include:

• Fuel surveys from the Alaska Housing and Finance Corporation
• Energy prices from University of Alaska-Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service
• Industry, occupation, and worker data from the Alaska Department of Labor
• Municipal tax records; information about payments and applications under the state community aid program; and vocational training data from the Alaska Energy Authority
• Financial statements for electric utilities from the Regulatory Commission of Alaska

"The goal of the project is to provide easier and enhanced access to important information used by communities, electric utility planners, and financiers as they consider future rural energy projects," said Erin Whitney, Program Manager at the UAF Alaska Center for Energy and Power.

This project is part of the Alaska Microgrid Partnership-a consortium of local and national stakeholders created to help Alaska's remote communities use less imported fuel and make their energy systems more reliable, cost-effective, and resilient. This upgrade to the Alaska Energy Data Gateway was made possible by funding from the U.S. Department of Energy's Grid Modernization Initiative. Berkeley Lab is part of the Grid Modernization Lab Consortium, a strategic partnership between DOE and the national laboratories to bring together leading experts, technologies, and resources to collaborate on the goal of modernizing the nation's grid.

To access the Alaska Energy Data Gateway, please visit: https://akenergygateway.alaska.edu. For more information, contact: Erin Whitney, erin.whitney@alaska.edu, (907) 799-6724