Good question on the spinning reserve point.  Anchorage is normally pretty well set with the CEA plants at IGT and Beluga, ML&P P1 & P2 with (P3?) to come on line soon plus intertie resources north and south.  MEA service area woes may stem from the nature of the new Eklutna plant - really ten plants in a single location that they can drop units not needed at the moment.  Takes a bit of time to start units, stabilize their governors and sync them into the grid.  Just a guess though...