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Meet the District 3 candidates for the Homer Electric Association’s board of directors

District 3 candidates
Sabine Poux
/
KDLL
District 3 candidates

Voting in Homer Electric Association’s 2023 election is open now through May 4. The cooperative electric utility stretches from Seldovia to just about Cooper Landing, with major goals over the next decade to diversify its grid and deliver more reliable and sustainable power to Kenai Peninsula and Kachemak Bay communities.

The more than 25,000 members in each of HEA’s three districts will decide between two candidates for three new seats on the co-op’s board of directors. Members can vote by mail, electronically or in-person at its annual meeting in Soldotna on May 4. Read about how to vote here.

This week, KBBI’s Kathleen Gustafson, host of the public affairs show Coffee Table, sat down with the two candidates for the southern peninsula’s District 3, which spans from Kasilof to the Kachemak Bay area. Jim Levine and Michael Jones talked with KBBI about their backgrounds, priorities, perspectives on renewables and new sources of energy for the Kenai Peninsula, and the vote on Seward Electric merging with Homer Electric Association.

Jim Levine is the incumbent and has worked as a structural engineer and project manager. He’s lived in Homer for almost 30 years and has served two terms with HEA, starting in 2009.

District 3 candidate Jim Levine
Sabine Poux
/
KDLL
District 3 candidate Jim Levine

“I've been here 30 years and wanted to give back to the community with my expertise, and felt I would be a great fit,” Levine said. “I've been on HEA two separate times. The first time we were putting together what's called ‘Independent Light.’ We were trying to get away from having Chugach Electric [Association] run our system, and that seems to have been very successful. We now have our own generation and we do all of our own stuff.”

Levine said he’s running again to continue the work of the board, focusing on diversification of energy sources.

“My biggest priority right now is diversifying our power generation portfolio. As probably everybody is aware, the state is estimating the demand for natural gas in the Cook Inlet basin is going to exceed the supply, perhaps as soon as 2027,” he said.

In January, the state’s Division of Oil and Gas announced that without new production, Cook Inlet’s current gas supply would likely only be enough to meet demand on the Railbelt, from Homer to Fairbanks, for the next four years. HEA’s main supplier of Cook Inlet gas is Hilcorp, which announced it may not sign future contracts with utilities. HEA’s contract with Hilcorp is up next year, so the new board has the major task of finding new power sources.

“There's been a lot of talk about HEA having a renewable goal of 50% by 2025,” Levine said. “And I was just gonna mention that that actually came from the Palin Administration. The State of Alaska has a goal of 50% renewable by 2025. So we just kind of figured that if that's something the state wants, then we should at least try. I don't know if it's feasible or not to achieve that goal. And I certainly am only in favor of it if we can reduce rates, and continue to have really great reliability. So if we can meet those goals and those caveats, I think it'd be really important.”

Mike Jones is the challenger for the District 3 seat. He recently retired and moved to Homer three years ago. Prior to that, he worked in electric operations for the California-based company Pacific Gas and Electric, or PG&E.

District 3 candidate Mike Jones
Sabine Poux
/
KDLL
District 3 candidate Mike Jones

“I began my career 37 years working in electric utilities, had key roles in development, construction, operations and maintenance of hydro pump storage, fossil [fuels], solar, wind, geothermal, battery storage systems, and even a couple of fuel cells,” Jones said. “Over that 37 years, that variety of assignments, some of those were individual contributor kind of roles where I was set out to go and find and solve problems, and others were small group leads where we had a specific task to achieve and go execute on, and I was also a large organization director in that organization — a group as big as 800 people overseeing our power generation business.”

Jones said he decided to retire to Homer after his son-in-law was stationed here with the U.S. Coast Guard. He said he wants to give back to the community, and his management experience working at PG&E would benefit the role with HEA.

“I really felt like I could probably bring a lot to the table having been intimately involved in development of hydro and solar and wind projects,” Jones said. “Over the course of this last year, I've participated in various conversations at the board level, and thought, ‘You know, this is probably the right time for me to step in and bring some of my expertise to the table because of these particular challenges that the board is going to be facing going forward.’ I think I can contribute at just the right time.”

The two candidates discussed their views on renewable energy, purchasing from independent power producers on the peninsula, and long-term ideas like building a new hydro-power plant, geothermal energy from Mt. Augustine, and hydro-kinectic energy or tidal power.

Another issue before Seward voters is the sale of Seward’s electric utility to Homer Electric Association. The election is on May 2.

Rob Montgomery is the utility manager in Seward, and a proponent of the $25 million sale. He made the case to Seward voters on Wednesday’s Coffee Table program.

We're really a small utility. We have 10 employees, so limited in-house expertise. We're looking at a number of challenges coming down the pike in the future, and we're simply not structured to manage those,” Montgomery said. “So from our perspective, from the council and the mayor, it makes a lot of sense for us at this time to be looking at aligning ourselves with a larger utility like Homer Electric. They've got a number of resources, they've got a tremendous amount of in-house expertise. And certainly they can offer more programs and services than we can. Most of our employees are focused on operations, and if we can align with Homer — and we believe this is the right move here, and I'm speaking for the council and the mayor and myself — then I think we set ourselves up very well for the future.”

Both candidates, Levine and Jones, said they support the merger.

To listen to the full Coffee Table conversation with Homer Electric Association candidates for District 3, check out the April 12 show here.

You can learn more about the HEA candidates, three district races and the election at homerelectric.com.

Corinne Smith is an award-winning reporter and producer who hails from Oakland, California. She’s reported for KFSK in Petersburg, KHNS in Haines, and most recently as a fish reporter for KDLG’s Bristol Bay Fisheries Report.
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