Mat-Su Borough Partners with Coal Plant Developer Seeking Data Center Options

“Half of that identified reserve could power a 1-GW power plant for thirty years,” TECC General Manager Chad Schleusner told the Matanuska Electric Association (MEA) board of directors at a February 10, 2025, meeting. The gigawatt estimate is greater than the company’s earlier plans for a 400-MW power plant, and the number keeps growing. TECC announced in March an “agreement in principle” with Hyundai Heavy Industries Power Systems to provide coal power plant boilers for a 1.25-GW project in Alaska—an agreement touted by the US Department of the Interior on its website, along with an announcement that KOREIT, one of South Korea’s largest infrastructure private equity firms, had committed $500 million as an equity investment in TECC’s project.

Alaska as a whole requires about 3 GW of power production. Most current production, particularly in Southcentral Alaska, comes from natural gas-fired power plants. The three largest plants—at Beluga, the George M. Sullivan Generation Plant 2 in Anchorage, and the Southcentral Power Project near Chugach Electric Association headquarters in Anchorage—are rated for 863.2 MW combined.

Schleusner, at the MEA board presentation, noted that coal provides a secure, confirmed, and local source of power that could offset power currently produced from Cook Inlet natural gas.

“It not only delivers competitive, firm power supply to Southcentral and the Railbelt, but it’s also the only in-state power that’s not dependent on international markets, and fluctuation in delivery and volatility associated with that market,” Schleusner told the MEA board.

Before Power, a Road

A coal-fired power plant is several steps down the line from where the company currently stands. The coal TECC wants to use is not part of an operating mine. It’s not even on the road system. The company has an exploration permit for the Canyon Creek area near Skwentna, where its coal reserve estimates come from. But opening a working mine would require development of the West Susitna Access Road, a 22-mile gravel road the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (DOT&PF) is pushing to build to facilitate resource development and recreation on more than 6 million acres of state land west of the Susitna River. That road would start in Big Lake and end about 1.5 miles west of Alexander Creek, with four bridges crossing two creeks, the Susitna River, and the Little Susitna River.

A March 3, 2026, fact sheet estimated the access road to cost more than $76 million, of which DOT&PF estimates the state would have to pay $57 million. The project is currently listed in the state’s Transportation Improvement Program, making it potentially eligible for state funding.

The initial 22 miles is only the first segment of what DOT&PF and the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority envision as a roughly 100-mile road. West Susitna access is still in the permitting phase. Furthermore, with significant wetland impacts, the road requires a federal Environmental Impact Statement and other permissions, which may not be complete until August 2027.

Wouldn’t a new power plant be easier to develop with existing fuel from the Usibelli Coal Mine in Healy? TECC officials have reason to prefer the Susitna coal, describing it as “exceptionally low” in contaminants, with sulphur, arsenic, boron, cadmium, lead, mercury, molybdenum, and selenium content all testing well below the low end of typical US coal ranges.

Moreover, TECC envisions an approach to coal-fired electricity never yet attempted in Alaska. “What we’re building is not your granddad’s power plant. It’s a new, modern, state of the art power plant. And when you compare that to LNG imports, it’s cleaner than LNG. When you add on carbon capture, it’s even cleaner than wind with natural gas backup,” Schleusner told the MEA board in 2025.

The key to “clean” is capturing carbon dioxide from the exhaust and harnessing the waste for year-round greenhouses to assist with food security. “We’re talking currently with a very large vertical greenhouse operation, and by injecting that CO2 into the greenhouse, you get a 30 percent better yield,” TECC co-founder Jason Motyka told the MEA board.

To soak up the surplus electricity that Susitna coal would generate, TECC plans to work over the next two years to secure “potential investors and large power consumers,” as outlined in the Assembly resolution, with help from Mat-Su Borough staff.

The joint marketing effort includes developing “designated Borough and TECC lands for data center, energy infrastructure, robotics manufacturing, and industrial development opportunities,” according to the resolution. Roughly 10,000 potential Borough-managed acres would be involved: about 3,500 acres in the Fish Creek area, currently lacking road access; more than 2,500 acres north of West Ayrshire Avenue in the Point MacKenzie area; more than 2,600 acres near Goose Creek Correctional Center; and more than 1,200 acres south of Hollywood Road just east of Big Lake. Any companies interested in using the land would have to negotiate with the Borough for its use.