Alaska Electric Light & Power, also known as AEL&P, is the power utility for Juneau

Juneau, Alaska

The City and Borough of Juneau is a unified municipality located on the Gastineau Channel in the panhandle of the U.S. state of Alaska. It has been the capital of Alaska since 1906, when the government of the then-District of Alaska was moved from Sitka as dictated by the U.S. Congress in 1900...

, the capital city of Alaska

Alaska

Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...

. AEL&P gets their electricity primarily through the Snettisham hydroelectric dam

Snettisham hydroelectric dam

The Snettisham hydroelectric power plant is a 78,210 kw power plant located 28 miles south of central Juneau, Alaska and accessible only by boat or seaplane. The power plant is fed by two lakes that are tapped from below, negating the need for a traditional dam. It supplies most of the electricity...

, located in an uninhabited region some distance to the south, accessible only by boat and seaplane

Seaplane

A seaplane is a fixed-wing aircraft capable of taking off and landing on water. Seaplanes that can also take off and land on airfields are a subclass called amphibian aircraft...

. The General Manager for the company is Tim Mcleod.
Founded in 1893 by Willis Thorpe, AEL&P is one of the only privately held utilities in the state. It originally ran on local hydroelectric dams run by the mining-focused Treadwell Company. These first dams were constructed on Salmon Creek

Salmon Creek Dam

The Salmon Creek Dam is a concrete arch dam on the Salmon Creek, northwest of Juneau, Alaska. Built in 1914, it is the world's first constant-angle arch variable radius dam. Since it was built, over 100 such dams have been constructed all over the world....

 and Sheep Creek. The current dam at Snettisham was completed in 1973.

2008 Avalanches and emergency power

In April, 2008, a series of massive avalanches outside Juneau heavily damaged the electrical lines providing Juneau with power, knocking the hydroelectric system offline and forcing the utility to switch to a much more expensive diesel

Diesel generator

A diesel generator is the combination of a diesel engine with an electrical generator to generate electrical energy....

system. Diesel generators replaced the hydroelectric power to the municipality in the weeks that followed, leading to temporarily higher utility costs for AEL&P customers until the power lines were repaired.