Developing a Fairbanks energy field guide
ACEP summer intern Matteo Kuizenga points at a slide as he explains his project during the final presentation.
September 25, 2025
Fairbanks native Matteo Kuizenga has always been concerned about climate change. So concerned he felt compelled to act.
That desire led Kuizenga, a mechanical engineering student at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, to work as an ACEP summer intern on a project with Emilia Sakai Hernandez, project manager for ACEP鈥檚 Power Systems Integration team, to develop an energy field guide for Fairbanks.
Inspired by the idea of a geology field guide, which offers factual and informative geologic history, resources and tools for fieldwork, Kuizenga wanted to create a guide that presents facts about energy in Fairbanks for its community.
The result is a 34-page Fairbanks energy field guide, which includes information about how energy is produced and used in the Interior as well as types of energy resources available such as coal, diesel, natural gas, hydro, wind and solar.
Focusing largely on the grid serviced by Fairbanks electric utility, , the guide also incorporates a discussion about challenges of operating an electrical grid and barriers to large-scale changes within a grid. It touches upon complicating factors such as changes in statewide energy supply and in federal assistance available to utilities.
In addition, Kuizenga looked at energy generation on the 51风流官网鈥檚 Troth Yeddha鈥 campus, which can function as an islanded microgrid. He then evaluated the future of energy in the Interior, including upgrade plans for a large battery storage system within GVEA and hydropower delivered to GVEA by the Alaska Railbelt transmission system. The Railbelt covers nearly 700 miles from Homer in the south to Fairbanks in the Interior, supplying power to 75% of the state鈥檚 population.
ACEP summer intern Matteo Kuizenga takes a selfie with wind turbines in the background at the Golden Valley Electric Association鈥檚 Eva Creek wind farm in Healy, Alaska. An avid cyclist, Kuizenga biked there to explore the area and document the wind turbines for his project.
Kuizenga sees that having a firm grasp of current energy situations, such as high energy costs in Fairbanks, helps residents make informed decisions about options like investing in renewable energy resources. Renewable energy development could reduce energy costs and contribute to energy security while lowering the carbon footprint.
鈥淭his summer internship has answered so many of my questions about energy,鈥 he said, reflecting on the process of developing the guide with research and interviews. 鈥淣ow I want to share that information with the community to help inform people about the challenges and opportunities in Interior Alaska.鈥
The internship also cultivated his appreciation for the people at ACEP who continue to work on energy solutions despite hurdles and who help communities through their research.
鈥淓very small success story is inspiring,鈥 he said.
This internship was funded by the U.S. through ACEP鈥檚 Research Experiences for Undergraduates program. View the on ACEP鈥檚 YouTube channel. For more information on this project, contact Emilia Sakai Hernandez at eshernandez@alaska.edu.