The Power of One Goes the Extra Mile — 3,400 of Them — for Alaskan Hydroelectric Plant

At Circuit Breaker Sales, the Power of One means more than providing the best in electrical engineering, equipment, and service. Sometimes it means going to the ends of the Earth to take care of our customers.

That was the case in December 2025 when Paul Grein, lead engineer at Circuit Breaker Sales, a Group CBS company, and vice president of Group CBS, found himself flying to Anchorage, Alaska before catching a bush plane to a grassy runway some 28 miles south of Juneau and the Snettisham hydroelectric power plant.

Gone Fishing

Completed in 1973 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Snettisham power plant delivers 78 MW of electrical power to 70% of Juneau’s population as well as Princess Cruise ships, the Greens Creek Mine, and the Snettisham Hatchery. Bored into the side of a mountain, including hidden tunnels reminiscent of an Austin Powers’ supervillain lair, Snettisham does not use a traditional dam to generate hydroelectric power. Instead, engineers tapped the bottom of nearby Long and Crater lakes, drawing water through an 8,400-foot power tunnel to turn three GE (model) turbines.

Working in one-week shifts deep under the mountain, maintenance personnel recently discovered a failure in an installed ABB K-Line 480 V circuit breaker connected to an automatic transfer switch (ATS) system in the hydroelectric plant’s control system. Luckily, workers had access to a spare breaker, avoiding expensive downtime. But should the spare fail, the consequences could be costly. Procuring another spare breaker did not represent a large capital investment, but if the maintenance team could not find a direct replacement, newer equipment could require a complete lineup replacement, which would cost the plant upward of $500,000 in equipment and labor plus millions in lost revenue due to unplanned downtime.

Snettisham contacted Circuit Breakers Sales (CBS) in Gainesville, Texas. Grein quickly located a spare and had his technicians prepare it for 48 VDC control along with other accessory requirements to meet Snettisham’s specific needs. The service shop shipped the spare breaker within days to the Alaska hydroelectric plant. During initial testing, the maintenance team determined that the breaker actually needed 125 VDC control. After a quick consult with CBS, Grein packed the necessary parts, tools, and pizza (you have to bring your own food to remote hydroelectric facilities) and started the first leg of his 3,458 mile journey to the Snettisham facility.

A Layover Repair

Grein had a 4-hour window to make the equipment modifications at Snettisham before his bush pilot would return. After swapping out the control components for the 125 VDC service, Grein had time to give the maintenance team a refresher course on the RRS-1 universal remote racking system from CBS ArcSafe, another Group CBS company. Remote racking systems allow workers to remove, install, and activate electrical equipment from a safe distance of up to 300 feet to avoid the catastrophic dangers of arc flash and reduce the need for bulky PPE equipment.

After the repair, testing, and training, Grein ran through a quick tour of the underground “lair” before flying south to the warmer climes of Central Texas.

“Snettisham is just the latest example of Circuit Breaker Sales’ commitment to our customers. At Group CBS, the Power of One means customers can trust our organization to solve most electrical challenges. And when the unexpected happens, one call will bring the calvary,” said Grein. “I’m just glad I got to be the lucky guy to fulfill that promise and make the trip to Alaska. Snettisham is definitely one of the coolest hydroelectric facilities I’ve ever had the pleasure to visit. The power, sense of history, and epic proportions of the facility outside Juneau is a work memory I’ll keep for a very long time.”