(ANCHORAGE) - The House Special Committee on Economic Development is holding hearings on Alaska's Railbelt electrical system. Chairman Heinze's committee is considering the possibility of an areawide outage such as occurred on the East Coast last August.

At the heart of this query to the Railbelt's major utilities is the reliability of the generation and transmission system. The committee will hear what is underway by these utilities in future planning to include system upgrades, new generation systems, alternative generation concepts, anticipated load growth and system operations.

In view of the economy's virtual total dependence on electrical energy today, Chairman Heinze believes this review will dovetail with the work of the Energy Policy Task Force and give the legislature a new and better understanding of this infrastructure. In addition, security of the system will be discussed with an eye toward vulnerabilities that could affect the operation of the system.

The hearings will be held on Tuesday October 28th, 2003 in room 220 of the Anchorage Legislative Information Office.

Matanuska Electric Assoc., Golden Valley Electric Assoc., Chugach Electric Assoc., Municipal Light and Power, Homer Electric Assoc., the City of Seward, and the Alaska Power Association have been invited to provide testimony

Re: EDT Hearings for Oct. 28th, 2003
Location: Anchorage LIO: Rm. 220
Time: 3pm-5pm

3:00 pm   Call to order.

3:05 pm - 3:25 pm   Municipal Light & Power

3:25 pm - 3:55 pm   Chugach Electric Association

4:00 pm - 4:30 pm   Matanuska Electric Association

4:35 pm - 4:45 pm   Golden Valley Electric Association

4:45 pm - 4:55 pm   Alaska Power Association

** The City of Seward will be available for questions and to add their insights.

** Hard copies of presentations will be delivered to your offices as soon as they are available.

** Representatives from the Joint Energy Policy Task Force will also be attending the hearing and will be available to answer any questions about the Task Force and its progress.

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