325 thousand to cut the diesel

The U.S. Department of Energy awarded $325,000 to the University of Alaska Fairbanks for a project called AURORA-AI, which is building artificial intelligence tools for isolated rural power systems in Alaska. Total funding across all partners, including Cordova Electric Cooperative, Colorado State University and the National Laboratory of the Rockies, comes to about $725,000.

Many small Alaska communities run their own diesel generators with no connection to a larger grid, which means operators who misjudge nightly demand end up burning more diesel than they need to. UAF professor of electrical and computer engineering Richard Wies described the core problem this way: these communities do not have a bigger grid they are connected to, so they are completely isolated.

The AI tools are meant to forecast demand ahead of time, cut diesel use, and keep power steadier on these isolated grids. Phase one begins October 1 and runs nine months, with Cordova Electric Cooperative serving as the utility partner.

Phase two would require roughly $7 million in additional funding. If secured, the plan calls for deploying modular data centers of about 100 kilowatts each directly into community microgrid systems, small enough to sit in a single village while running on the same power system they are meant to help balance.