No Wire Leaves Cordova. So the Load Moved In.
What does Cordova do with power it can't sell and can't ship out?
The deck
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The story
No transmission line leaves Cordova. 170 kilowatts of computing sits inside the Humpback Creek powerhouse. "The server was literally 20 feet from the generators," said Clay Koplin, CEO of Cordova Electric Cooperative. Koplin estimates 20 to 25 percent of Cordova's hydropower goes unused every year.
The Energy Department's July 22nd award list named a University of Alaska Fairbanks project and printed no amount. August 11th published $725,000. It funds software that forecasts demand and flags abnormal conditions, not the server. Alaska has over 200 remote microgrids.
The map with no line out, the twenty feet drawn true, and what the $725,000 buys.
What has to already exist in a village before AURORA-AI does anything there?
What we verified
35 CLAIMS, EACH RE-FETCHED FROM ITS SOURCE BEFORE THIS DECK SHIPPED
The University of Alaska Fairbanks received a $725,000 award from the U.S. Department of Energy for the AURORA-AI project.
AURORA-AI stands for Alaska Utility Resilience and Optimization using Real-time AI.
Richard Wies is the principal investigator for AURORA-AI.
AURORA-AI is a partnership of the UAF Alaska Center for Energy and Power, Colorado State University, the National Laboratory of the Rockies and Cordova Electric Cooperative.
UAF says AURORA-AI will combine high-resolution utility data, virtual replicas of the power grid and AI to forecast demand, detect abnormal operating conditions and optimize energy resources.
UAF says Alaska has over 200 remote microgrids.
UAF published the AURORA-AI release on August 11th, 2026.
The Alaska Center for Energy and Power published its own AURORA-AI release on the same day, August 11th, 2026.
Richard Wies said Alaska's isolated power systems provide an ideal environment for developing and testing next-generation technologies that can improve electric grid resilience.
The AURORA-AI award was made under the U.S. Department of Energy's Genesis Mission.
The Department of Energy selected 278 projects in the first Genesis Mission round.
Of the first round Genesis Mission projects, 168 are led by universities.
The first Genesis Mission round spans 342 participating institutions including 16 national laboratories and 142 universities.
The Department of Energy announced the first selected Genesis Mission projects on July 22nd, 2026.
The $293 million Genesis Mission figure is the size of the Request for Application announced on March 17th, 2026 and the Department of Energy does not state it as the combined value of the 278 selected projects.
Genesis Mission Phase I awards range from $500,000 to $750,000 and support a nine month project period.
The $725,000 AURORA-AI award falls inside the published Genesis Mission Phase I band of $500,000 to $750,000.
Greensparc delivered 170 kilowatts of computing capacity inside Cordova's run of river Humpback Creek hydroelectric facility.
In 2025 hydropower provided more than 83 percent of Cordova's overall electrical demand.
Clay Koplin estimates that 20 to 25 percent of Cordova's hydropower goes unused each year.
Clay Koplin said the server was literally 20 feet from the generators.
Clay Koplin is chief executive officer of Cordova Electric Cooperative.
The Department of Energy and Cordova incrementally developed a smart microgrid from 2017 to 2023.
A digital twin of Cordova's microgrid was built by the National Laboratory of the Rockies alongside Idaho National Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories.
Greensparc is the edge data center provider that installed the computing on the floor of the Cordova power station.
Cordova Electric Cooperative serves 1,566 customers.
Cordova Electric Cooperative has a generating capacity of 18 megawatts.
Cordova is not connected to the State Highway System and Cordova Electric Cooperative is not connected by transmission line to other communities.
The Department of Energy renamed the National Renewable Energy Laboratory the National Laboratory of the Rockies effective December 1st, 2025.
Alaska DNR has preliminarily decided to authorize a 50 year lease of 715.4 acres to STAK Energy Corporation about 26 miles south of Deadhorse.
The public comment period on the STAK Energy lease closed at 4:30 p.m. Alaska Daylight Time on July 17th, 2026.
The STAK Energy lease notice is a preliminary decision and no final finding and decision has been published.
The state notice describes the STAK Energy campus as a commercial natural gas powered energy facility with on site natural gas power generation infrastructure, so its electricity would be generated for itself rather than drawn from an existing Alaska utility grid.
Exactly one of the 278 rows on the Department of Energy's Genesis Mission awards list is an Alaska institution, the University of Alaska Fairbanks project AURORA-AI led by Richard Wies.
Cordova has about 2,600 residents.
Beats
This article is on Alaska power and the grid · Alaska AI research and science. Each beat page keeps every decision and every article on that subject in one place.