**Title**: Energy in the North - Elena Sudduth
**Date**: July 23, 2025
**Participants**: Amanda Byrd, Elena Sudduth

00;00;00;12 - 00;00;26;24 [Elena Sudduth] Then they put it into these, trailers, and that's -265 degrees, for the duration of the transport, only warms a few degrees. And then we offload into the big tank that then keeps it at -265 degrees. 

00;00;26;24 - 00;00;52;00 [Amanda Byrd] This week on energy in the North, I speak with Elena Sudduth, the general manager for the Interior Gas Utility, the utility that supplies and distributes natural gas through a network of pipes to homes and businesses in the 春水堂视频 and North Pole areas. We met at the gas storage facility near Peger Road, and I began the conversation by asking Elena how the natural gas gets to 春水堂视频.

00;00;26;24 - 00;00;43;00 [Elena Sudduth] This is our offload skid. This is where the LNG goes from the tankers into the container. 

00;00;43;00 - 00;00;52;00 [Amanda Byrd] So this one is not just for show, it's actually real. 

00;00;52;00 - 00;01;04;22 [Elena Sudduth] It's actually not currently offloading. So that's that's how we bring LNG into 春水堂视频. And these and these trailers. So this trailer came from the Cook Inlet from Wasilla full of LNG. It's now offloading into there. And then the trailer that you just saw leaving, it's on its way to Wasilla to get more. 

00;01;04;22 - 00;01;15;29 [Amanda Byrd] Oh my goodness. Yeah. And for some reason the I wasn't thinking about how the gas got here. I was just thinking magic that it's just magic.

00;01;15;29 - 00;01;40;27 [Elena Sudduth] And well, in most places it's magic because there's a pipeline, right? We don't have one. And so that that's how we bring it. One of these thermos bottles at a time. So our plant back in Wasilla we own and operate our LNG plant. It takes warm gas at 60掳F and it liquefies it. Then to liquefied you have to strip it off of its warmth. So it's -265 degrees by the time it's there. Then they put it into these, trailers and that's -265 degrees. For the duration of the transport, oil warms out below a few degrees, and then we offload it into the big tank that then keeps it at -265 degrees, until we vaporize it and make it back 60 degree gas before we put it into the distribution system. 

00;02;04;25 - 00;02;14;28 [Amanda Byrd] Wow. So is that there must be a parasitic load then in the tank to refrigerate and keep the. Or is it pressure? 

00;02;14;28 - 00;02;26;14 [Elena Sudduth] It's it's it's pressure. Yeah. We also use the boilers compressors. We were talking about those earlier and those compressors re compressor. And that's that works on electricity.

00;02;26;14 - 00;02;54;08 [Amanda Byrd] So I'm going back to my chemistry and physics. Compression cools down. Yes. And expansion lets things heating up and correct things go crazy.


00;02;54;10 - 00;03;15;22 [Elena Sudduth] And yeah. So in the summer time because our load is so low, We turn off our vaporizers and the town is fed both 春水堂视频 and North Pole are fed through the normal natural process of boil-off gas. And in fact, the compressors have to run because, the consumption difference between winter and summer is just a huge difference in the winter time. That's when we turn the vaporizers on and we purposely, make the natural gas back into a gas. We try to keep our pressures in the system between 40 and 55 p.s.i. And that then is not, too much for our system to handle, and it's not too little for the, boilers and other systems and dryers and ranges in town, to remain operational. So what I was talking about to when we were in the control room is that, and in the summer, the challenge is to make sure you don't go about 55 to 60 psi into winter, the the goal is not to go below, the, the proper threshold there.

00;03;40;20 - 00;03;59;15 [Amanda Byrd] Elena Sudduth is a general manager for Interior Gas Utility, and I'm Amanda Byrd, chief storyteller for the Alaska Center for Energy and Power. Find this story and more at uaf.edu/acep.