Kodiak Electric Association Inc

Kodiak Electric Association Inc is an electric cooperative in Kodiak, Alaska, operating from 1614 Mill Bay Road. Formed in 1941 to address the growing energy needs of Kodiak and taking over from the Community Power Company, the cooperative began operations in August 1942. It is owned entirely by the members it serves and operates as a not-for-profit organization. KEA generates, transmits and distributes electrical power across an isolated grid, maintaining six active substations, nineteen distribution feeders, thirty-three miles of transmission lines and 350 miles of distribution lines that serve approximately 6,000 meters and more than 4,000 members. The cooperative has 35 employees and has been in business for 84 years.

Renewable energy is central to KEA's operations. The Terror Lake Hydroelectric plant provides approximately 85 percent of generation, with the remainder coming from a combination of six wind turbines, two flywheels and a battery energy storage system, alongside diesel generation facilities maintained as backup. KEA began studying Terror Lake in the 1960s, and the plant began commercial operation in 1985. The Pillar Mountain Wind Project, initiated in 2009, added wind power capacity, and the Upper Hidden Basin Diversion Project, completed in 2019, increased renewable generation by redirecting high-elevation streams into Terror Lake. The cooperative reached over 95 percent renewable generation by 2013 and maintained 98 percent by 2017.

The cooperative offers members several programs, including a prepaid billing option with no late fees or deposits, an Operation Round Up program that rounds bills to the next whole dollar to contribute to a scholarship fund, and the SmartHub app for account management and payments. Members can report outages by phone, view an outage map, start new service through an online assistant, and call 811 before digging so KEA can assist in locating underground electrical hazards.

The office sits on Mill Bay Road, about 0.1 miles from Lilly Lake and 0.2 miles from East Addition Park. Spruce Tree Park is roughly 0.4 miles away, as is the Kodiak-Lily Lake Seaplane Base. The Benny Benson grave is about 0.5 miles from the location.

KEA holds a rating of 3.00. As a member-owned cooperative, its purpose is not to maximize profits for shareholders but to serve the members who own it, and it has powered Kodiak for more than eight decades.