The submarine cable that brings hydroelectric power to Haines has been damaged and could fail at any time, Alaska Power & Telephone officials warned this week. Such failure would force Haines to fire up its diesel generators downtown and would likely drive up prices.

“It’s going to fail,” AP&T operations manager Darren Belisle told the CVN. “It could be tomorrow, it could be a year from now. We’re just getting the word out that this is coming.”

Belisle said the company recognized the damaged cable earlier this month in the process of starting up its Kasidaya plant three miles south of Skagway. He said the fiber optics that allow communication between two plants went dead, and AP&T sent a remote-operated submarine into the water to examine the cable.

The cable had moved, and the outer covering on the line was damaged. “It’s been pushed 70 to 80 feet from where it lay, so it’s under a lot of tension right now,” Belisle said.

The submarine cable isn’t buried, though in some places it’s covered by silt, Belisle said. The cable’s position in the river delta puts it in the path of small landslides and shifting currents, which have moved it for the first time since it was placed in 1998, Belisle said.

Belisle said that AP&T is just starting to look at the cost of replacing the cable.

Without a cable replacement, Haines would have to run a backup diesel plant 24 hours a day, seven days a week, Belisle said. The effect to consumers would be a price hike, depending on the cost of diesel at the time.

“It’s just more expensive to make power from diesel than to make it from hydro,” Belisle said. “Let’s say Haines is using 1,000 kilowatts. You can make 14 kilowatts with one gallon of diesel fuel.”

Currently, Haines is supplied with 100 percent of its power from the Skagway Borough through the submarine energy transmission cable. The cable runs from Goat Lake to Kasidaya, with Skagway in the middle.

The damaged cable is located between Goat Lake and Kasidaya, which would only affect Haines if it fails. Skagway’s energy needs could still be met by Goat Lake, Belise said.

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