**Title**: Energy in the North - Alec Mesdag
**Date**: April 15, 2026
**Participants**: Amanda Byrd, Alec Mesdag

00;00;00;00 - 00;00;15;08 [Alec Mesdag] With heat pumps becoming more viable, especially air source heat pumps, being very viable in Juneau, we see a lot of folks installing those. Now, those heat pumps also provide a saving to over electric resistance. 

00;00;15;08 - 00;00;45;11 [Amanda Byrd] This week on energy in the North, I speak with Alec Medag, the president and CEO of Alaska Electric Light and Power, the largest utility in Southeast Alaska and the utility that provides power to the Juneau area. AEL&P runs 100% on hydroelectric power, but heating has historically been generated by heating fuel, with heating fuel over $5 a gallon and a break even point of 4 to $4.50 a gallon. I began the conversation by asking Alec if people are converting to electric heat.

00;00;45;11 - 00;03;04;01 [Alec Mesdag] The demand for electricity in Juneau doesn't just move up and down perfectly with how much water is available, and it's pretty costly to have a hydro plant that has a lot of excess capacity. You know, it's just you want to be able to sell all the energy that a project can produce right out of the gate in order to make it as cost effective as possible. Until recently, most electric heat was resistance. That is probably still the case. Most electric heat in Juneau is, resistance heat, either in the form of electric boilers or electric baseboards, plug in space heaters, that sort of thing. It is only very, very recent. And there's only been, you know, pretty small periods in the history of the utility that it has been cheaper to heat with electric resistance than with oil. So the break even point is probably in that 4 to $4.50 per gallon range. And, that's kind of where oil has been now for a little while. There's not a huge savings to go from oil to electric resistance heat. If there is a savings and then with heat pumps becoming more viable, especially air source heat pumps, being very viable in Juneau, we see a lot of folks installing those. Now, those heat pumps also provide a saving to over electric resistance. So it isn't apparent in our system so much that we're seeing increasing energy sales because of conversions from oil to heat pumps. You know, our energy sales haven't moved a ton. It's, you know, our growth in energy sales seems to be more highly correlated with new construction than it does with heating conversions. And but what we have seen is we've seen growth in our peak demand. So a pretty rapid growth in our peak demand. And I think one thing that could be contributing to that is when people convert from electric resistance to a heat pump, we see, pretty sizable reduction in energy sales. But heat pumps, especially air source heat pumps at cold temperatures, their coefficient of performance is not great. So they still have a relatively high demand when compared to the electric resistance heat that they're offsetting. 


00;03;04;01 00;03;06;06 [Amanda Byrd] What is a coefficient of performance? 

00;03;06;06 - 00;04;00;17 [Alec Mesdag] It's a way to describe the efficiency of a heat pump. So you obviously you can't have an appliance that is more than 100% efficient. Coefficient of performance allows you to measure just the energy that you input into the heating appliance that you pay for. And then against the amount of heat that you get out of that appliance. So if I put one kilowatt hour into, heat pump and I can get three kilowatt hours of heat out of that heat pump. Some of that energy is coming from the outside air, so it's still not a greater than 100% efficient appliance. But I'm getting three units of heat for every one unit of energy that I paid for to put into it, to operate that appliance. So we say it has a copy or coefficient of performance of three. Instead of saying it's 300% efficient, which is we defined the laws of physics.

00;04;00;17 - 00;04;14;16 [Amanda Byrd] Alec Mesdag is the president and CEO of Alaska Electric Light and Power and I'm Amanda Byrd, chief storyteller for the Alaska Center for Energy and Power. Find this story and more at uaf.edu/acep