The Pribilof Island of St. George is getting an upgrade to its decades-old power system. The community’s entire electrical grid, from generators to distribution lines will be replaced this summer.

For St. George mayor Pat Pletnikoff, overhauling the power grid isn’t just about cheaper energy. It’s about keeping people in the community. St. George has lost more than a third of its population since 2000.

“If you can save that money, then the money that isn’t going up the smokestack, so to speak, is money that you can use to address the very real needs that people have," Pletnikoff says.

In St. George, those needs are many. The island’s economy is depressed, there are few jobs, and living expenses are high. Right now, power costs $1 per kilowatt hour, nearly seven times the state average. Pletnikoff says between that, and the high cost of home heating fuel, many people are struggling. But he’s hopeful that the new wind/diesel power plant will turn things around.

“We’ve got a lot of folks in St. George that see the light at the end of the tunnel -- a little bit. And a little bit of hope goes a long ways," Pletnikoff says.

The Alaska Energy Authority is responsible for the $5 million overhaul. Deputy Director for Rural Energy Sandra Moller says the community’s current system has pretty much reached the end of its life.

“They’ve got several generators in their existing power plant, [but] it’s probably a 1960s, 50s vintage power plant, and they were down to one [functional] generator, which isn’t generally a good thing in a rural community.”

The power distribution system also needs some work.

“You know, on a distribution line, if it’s not up to par, you lose a lot of electricity to line loss," Moller says. "And that seems to be the case.”

Moller says it’s too soon to say what kind of savings the community will see from the upgrades, but the new system promises to be more reliable. It also allows for future expansion.

St. George is currently being considered as a port of refuge by the Coast Guard, and a new harbor and fish processing plant could also bring business to the community. So, AEA sized the plant to balance current need with potential future development.

“We want it to be efficient and something they can afford," Moller says. "So, if you oversize the system, you could set it up where the community is paying too much in anticipation of future growth. We do build our modules so they can be added on to.”

The plant will house four 210 kilowatt generators, and will also incorporate power from a 95 kilowatt wind turbine, when conditions allow. Waste heat from the generators will be piped into five nearby public buildings in order to cut their fuel bills. A computer-based monitoring system will feed information back to AEA, and allow the agency to gauge how the new system compares to the old one.

“It’s a community that we’re touching all of our programs in, so that’s why it’s something that we’re trying to monitor and track, so we can learn how effective it is, and what we can do better," Moller says.

The entire system is scheduled to be online by early 2014.