North Slope maps plan for largest natural gas power plant in the world
The North Slope Borough is planning with private operators to create the world’s largest natural gas power plant near Prudhoe Bay, which would generate electricity for industry, data centers and potentially a power line to the Railbelt.
Borough Mayor Josh Patkotak and three officials from Twenty First Century Utilities gave a presentation on this massive project at CERA Week in March in Texas.
Here is how the borough pitched its idea:
“At the top of the continent, a new kind of electric utility is taking shape—one that will convert abundant, low-cost gas into large-scale electric power in Prudhoe Bay. The North Slope Borough and Twenty First Century Utilities have partnered to create North Slope Power (NSP), a next-generation utility that will harness more than 35 trillion cubic feet of proven natural gas reserves on Alaska’s North Slope. Designed to power colocated AI data centers and industrial load, while also transmitting electricity south into the Railbelt grid, NSP will deliver reliable low-cost power and position Alaska as a competitive hub for energy-intensive industries. Learn about how this pioneering project will redefine how Alaska exports its energy advantage—and what it means for our broader energy and AI future.”
The proponents said it would be a 3 gigawatt first phase that could be expanded to 10 gigawatts.
Meanwhile, the Alaska Current has a new piece by Lauren Windsor that deals with former Revenue Commissioner Adam Crum, investment decisions he made for the state, and his relationships with companies and executives that did business with the state.
There are new details in Windsor’s story that deserve a full investigation. We need more information to get a full grasp of what due diligence took place and what personal relationships and connections played a part in the decisions.
For instance, Peter Corsell, is an executive and cofounder of Twenty First Century Utilities, an entity that was acquired by I Squared Capital in 2019. Corsell is a former I Squared partner.
Corsell is also the board chairman of Saige Consulting, a company that got a contract with the revenue department in 2024 to modernize the PFD application process.
“Our partnership with Saige introduces advanced AI capabilities to our government, accelerating Alaska’s IT modernization and ensuring that all citizens benefit from cutting-edge technology and an improved digital experience,” Crum is quoted as saying on the Saige Website.
Saige was the “group transport sponsor” for a five-hour glacier cruise given to members of the State Financial Officers Foundation during a 2024 meeting in Alaska. Crum was named the “rising star” of the foundation at that conference.
Three days before Crum quit his state job last summer to run for governor, he ordered that $225 million in state funds be moved into an account from which three investments of $75 million each were to have been made with three private equity companies—DigitalBridge, Blackstone and I Squared Capital.
The only reason that the full $225 million investments didn’t take place is because Janelle Earls replaced Crum and became acting revenue commissioner.
Earls “decided not to proceed with the contemplated investments in the two funds that are not managed by DigitalBridge,” according to the $350,000 investigation of Crum undertaken by the law firm WilmerHale.
But Crum had already signed the DigitalBridge investment, so that could not be cancelled. It was later sold at a loss of about $1 million.
One of the questions that comes up now is whether Crum wanted state funds invested with I Squared to be used in the proposed North Slope power plant. Here is what North Slope Power says about its plan.
The WilmerHale investigation did not identify Blackstone and I Squared Capital as the two other funds. It redacted the names of the companies.
But I base my identification of the two companies on the following.
First, Crum produced a document saying that one of the redacted names is that of the “world’s largest alternative asset manager, with over $1.2 trillion in assets under management.”
Second, Crum’s document says the other redacted name is that of a company with more than $45 billion in assets under management, “founded in 2012 by former Morgan Stanley executives.
The company has been recognized with multiple awards from Infrastructure Investor and focuses on “platform building” methodology to start small and grow big, Crum’s document said.
I Squared Capital, founded in 2012 by former Morgan Stanley Executives, had $50 billion in assets under management by last fall. It received three Infrastructure Investor awards in 2024 and says platform building is a key to success.
We still don’t know why Crum chose DigitalBridge, Blackstone and I Squared Capital for the $225 million.
Sitka Sen. Bert Stedman had a hearing scheduled on Crum’s activities, but it was canceled at the last minute because there was no authoritative source to testify on the Wilmer Hale investigation of Digital Bridge that led to Senate Bill 221.
This bill, which would ban investments with DigitalBridge, will not become law.
But having a real hearing on this is the only chance this session—and perhaps the only chance ever—to dig into what Crum did last year.
The Senate Finance Committee should make time to hold that hearing before the Legislature adjourns for the year. A hearing would not provide all the answers, but it would allow the full details of the $350,000 Wilmer Hale investigation to be examined in public.
I can understand why many people in state government and the Legislature would rather forget all about Crum’s actions and the tacit approval that he received from the office of Gov. Mike Dunleavy. That should not be allowed to happen.
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