Utility Intern to Assist City of Buckland With Renewable Energy Integration Procedures
The City of Buckland is located in the Northwest Arctic Borough in Western Alaska,
75 miles southeast of Kotzebue and just 40 miles below the Arctic Circle. The community
of about 420 recently received three containerized solar arrays, a Saft battery bank, and a grid-forming inverter from
ABB. These new additions increased the complexity of the community鈥檚 microgrid.
Arianna Sosnowski, a civil engineering junior at the University of Alaska Anchorage,
will spend her summer in Buckland. She鈥檒l work with the project鈥檚 champion, Mayor
Tim Gavin, on reviewing and updating procedures related to the operation, maintenance,
data-gathering and management of the upgraded utility systems.
Sosnowski will support the City of Buckland in implementation of energy-efficiency, weatherization and energy-literacy campaigns focused on energy usage in the community. The goal is to facilitate knowledge and experience-sharing across the Northwest Arctic Borough region.
Ten utilities across Alaska are participating in the ACEP utility internship program
funded by the . Student interns are paired with a mentor from ACEP, who will consult with them and
their host utilities throughout the internship period.
For more information, please contact Heike Merkel.