Our Challenge
Fairbanksans created GVEA in 1946 to provide affordable and reliable power. But for too many members, GVEA is not delivering on that promise.
Our grid is at its limits and electricity costs are skyrocketing. GVEA has no long-term strategy for reducing rates.
My name is Phil Wight and I’m running to ensure that GVEA is more accountable to its members and true to its foundational purpose.
GVEA has the highest electricity prices on the Railbelt, largely because GVEA burns more oil for electricity than any other utility in Alaska.
This is unaffordable and unacceptable. Our electric bills should not skyrocket every time there is a war in the Middle East. We can, and must, do better.
Why I'm Running
We are facing an energy crisis. This winter GVEA was on the verge of rolling blackouts on multiple occasions. GVEA can no longer purchase gas-fired electricity from Anchorage, which provided cheaper power for a third of our needs. Residential utility charges jumped 8.3% before the Iranian War, with double-digit increases coming this summer. “Business as usual” is not working.
GVEA must evolve to meet these serious challenges. Member-owners deserve a director who will prioritize running our grid more efficiently, bringing online lower-cost sources of power, and being more creative about how we achieve GVEA’s foundational mission.
GVEA staff have done a heroic job keeping our lights on through the ice storms, forest fires, and weeks of -40 this past winter. But they can’t
deliver affordable electricity unless the Board has an actionable plan.
Fortunately, we have more tools and technologies than ever before to bring online cheap, clean power. GVEA has been granted the largest utility aid package in Alaska history—the PACE and New ERA federal programs —which can enable our cooperative to build much-needed transmission,
add a powerful new battery, and integrate more wind power.
I am running to ensure we build these much-needed resources.
GVEA can be the clean energy powerhouse of our economy, supplying affordable and abundant electricity to power prosperity for this generation and the next.
MY FOCUS
#1 Affordability
GVEA has some of the highest fuel costs in the state because 40% of our power comes from burning expensive petroleum products.
GVEA must stabilize rates with local clean power. There is no path to electricity affordability while GVEA is heavily reliant on expensive fuel sources. We must make long-term investments in non-fuel generation sources like hydropower and wind, while remaining open minded to future opportunities in geothermal, tidal, and next-generation nuclear.
GVEA must also better utilize the grid we’ve already built. We can work more collaboratively with southcentral utilities, who have newer generators and surplus generation capacity, and have saved their ratepayers over $20 million through greater collaboration. Our best energy future involves greater utilization of the Railbelt electric system.
GVEA’s members can be part of the solution. During the pipeline boom, GVEA’s members helped shift over 5 megawatts of load, saving money for everyone. Today, residential members have over 50 megawatts of dispatchable demand-side resources—like hot water heaters, smart thermostats and batteries—that can reduce load when the grid is under strain.
GVEA can invest in its members as grid assets to increase reliability through distributed capacity. Put simply, GVEA can be more creative about how it delivers and stores power. Through GVEA’s REDUCE program, we can empower individual member owners with solar and storage to ensure everyone has power—even in an outage.
#2 Investing In MEMBERS As Grid ASSETS
#3 GRID SECURITY
We are seeing more frequent and expensive natural disasters which directly impact GVEA and its members. The 2019 Swan Lake fire cut GVEA’s access to Bradley Lake hydropower—our lowest cost source of power. The October 2024 windstorm cost GVEA members over $2 million. Last summer’s wildfires forced GVEA to deenergize the crucial Healy-Gold Hill transmission line.
We must do more to protect our grid from dangerous ice storms and expensive wildfires. We must ensure that our power lines do not cause fires that could subject member-owners to billions of dollars worth of liability.
About Me
I’m a father and husband living the Alaskan dream in the hills of Ester.
As a history professor at UAF, I teach the history of Alaska and the circumpolar North. My expertise is energy and environmental history; I’ve written on the electrification of Alaska, a history of the Railbelt electric grid, and a history of nuclear power in Alaska. I’m currently finishing a book manuscript—Arctic Artery: The Trans-Alaska Pipeline System and the World it Made (University of Washington Press, 2027)—coinciding with the 50th anniversary of TAPS.
I have provided invited testimony on Alaskan energy issues to the Natural Resources subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives in D.C. and the Alaska State Legislature’s House Resources committee in Juneau.
Outside of my day job, I’m a small business owner and I’ve worked as an energy expert for AKPIRG, where I led the effort to bring community solar to Alaska (Senate Bill 152). Thanks to this legislation, GVEA members should soon be able to reduce their bills via community solar.
Understanding energy is both part of my profession and something I find endlessly fascinating. For the past decade, I’ve consulted on home energy projects and helped neighbors install insulation, solar panels, and batteries to lower energy costs. After driving an electric vehicle 4,300 miles to Fairbanks, I’ve helped several friends research and acquire plug-in vehicles. I want my friends and neighbors to have cleaner, cheaper energy options.
As a member-owner of GVEA, I’ve attended most board meetings since 2019 and have been a part of the Member Advisory Committee (MAC) for the past three years. As Chair of the MAC, I led a “Demand Response” task force which demonstrated how GVEA can improve reliability and reduce bills by investing in member-owners’ homes.
When not working on energy issues, I live for fresh powder days at Ski Land and Moose, summer days fishing and floating rivers, and dark winter nights in the Whites. I’m a builder and aspiring carpenter, (hopefully) finishing my son’s epic treehouse this summer.
As a father, I want to ensure Fairbanks remains a land of opportunity for our children.
