Commissioners each received a copy of a new book on Grant PUD's colorful history, rapid growth, current challenges and future opportunities. It will be provided soon in Grant County libraries, high schools, museums, port districts and other municipal entities. The book, "Powering On: The Can-do Legacy Driving Grant PUD Into the Future," was written by Pacitic Northwest author and hydropower historian John Harrison. Photo, from left, Commissioners Tom Flint, Terry Pyle, Nelson Cox, author Harrison, Commissioners Judy Wilson and Larry Schaapman. Scroll down for more.
2025 budget, 3% rate increase, new rate-setting strategy approved in final commission meeting of the year
Commissioners Tuesday unanimously approved a $312.2 million budget for 2025 and a 3% increase to retail rate revenue effective April 1, 2025.
The retail rate increase affects each rate class differently based, in part, on the cost to supply each customer class with electricity. A new rate-setting criteria, also approved Tuesday, sets rates based on three guiding directives: 1) Protection of core customers (residential, irrigation and small business) to assure them the lowest power rate possible. 2) Social fairness and 3) The rate classes that drive the growth, pay for the growth.
Beginning April 1, 2025, the average residential electric customer will see a monthly increase of approximately $2.58 on their bill. Rate increases by each individual customer class are as follows:
Residential (Schedule 1) 2.5%
General service (Sch. 2) 2.5%
Irrigation (Sch. 3) 2.5%
Streetlights (Sch. 6) 6.0%
Large Gen. Service (Sch. 7) 4.9%
Industrial (Sch. 14) 6.0%
Large industrial (Sch. 15) 2.5%
Ag Processing (Sch. 16) 6.0%
Evolving Industry (Sch. 17) 6.0%
Vehicle fast charging (Sch. 19) 6.0%
Ag Boiler (Sch. 85) 6.0%
The need for a rate increase is determined by the amount of expected income Grant PUD needs to ensure operation and maintenance expenses are covered.
Operations and maintenance expenses include all spending necessary to keep the utility functioning and providing safe and reliable service. In 2025, that O&M expense is budgeted at $236.5 million, up from $201.9 million in 2024.
The 2025 budget contains $243.3 million for capital projects to modernize machinery, expand and improve the utility’s capacity to generate and deliver electric and fiber service. Of that total, 74% – $179.9 million – is targeted for electric system expansion, including new and upgraded substations and high-voltage transmission to reduce power outages and supply more electricity for industry, mostly in Quincy and Moses Lake.
Initial planning work for a new Ephrata Service Center will continue through 2025, with construction slated to begin in late 2026. Its total cost has yet to be determined. In a new, less congested, 34-acre site near Ephrata Walmart, the new center will improve outage-response times and provide much-needed additional room for offices, locker space, adequate restrooms, training, warehousing, electric shops, material storage and transportation shop.
The remaining $63.4 million in capital budget will fund turbine/generator upgrades at Priest Rapids Dam and other projects linked to dam operations and license obligations.
Income from power sales and contributions to capital costs from Grant PUD industrial customers are budgeted at $264.8 million in 2025, up from $119.3 million in 2024. One large driver of revenue increase is a new power-sales contract for 10% of the dams’ output, which is expected to add $46 million.
For more information on the 2025 budget, see pages 9-13 of the commission packet.
For more information on the rate increase, see pages 135-186 of the commission packet.
For more information on the rate-setting strategy policy, see pages 187-195 of the commission packet.
Increased application fees proposed for industrial customers requesting service
Commissioners heard a proposal from Andy Wendell, Senior Manager of Large Power Solutions, for increased application fees for new large load customers. Wendell pointed to the 76 applicants in a queue for new services with power load requests that are more than 2,819 Megawatts (MW) in increased load.
“What can we do to determine what is real versus speculative?” Wendell said is what his team asked themselves.
Wendell said a major consideration to answer that question is modifying the application process to include a fee that is more in-line with the actual costs of providing services to large-load customers. Presently customers with requested loads between 0.5 to 2 MW pay $2,500 in an application fee. Application fees for loads up to 10 MW are $6,500, while loads between 10 and 20 MW are $15,000, and loads up to 40 MW are $52,000.
The proposed application fee would remain at $2,500 for loads between 0.5 and 2 MW. Loads between 2 to 10 MW would be $50,000 per MW, loads from 10 MW to 40 MW would be $160,000 per MW and loads 40 MW and above would be $240,000 per MW.
The advantage of going from a $52,000 in an application fee for 40 MW to $6.4 million would ensure that the application fee is in line with what it costs to build new power infrastructure for new large loads, Wendell said. Those who pay the increased fee would keep their place in the queue, while those who do not would lose their spot.
Wendell explained that the increased application fee would cover the district’s costs to study how to provide power to the applicant, design needed infrastructure improvements and develop a facilities agreement. Remaining funds from the up-front fee would be part of the true-up with the customer at the time a final cost determination has been made by Grant PUD staff before infrastructure construction begins.
Wendell added that he plans to bring the application fee proposal back to commission for further review and approval early in 2025. Hear the discussion at 1:57:04 on the commission audio. See page 60 to 81 of the presentation packet.
Local libraries to receive Grant PUD history book
Chuck Allen, Senior Manager of External Affairs & Communications, introduced author John Harrison, who recently published a history book commissioned by Grant PUD titled, “Powering On: The Can-do Legacy Driving Grant PUD Into the Future.”
Harrison, who has a journalism background, is a retired spokesman for the Northwest Power and Conservation Council. He told the commissioners that it was a fascinating experience to write the book. “What Grant PUD accomplished as a rural, small utility building two Columbia River Dams is just an amazing accomplishment and an incredible story,” Harrison said.
Allen told the commissioners that the first printing of the book is complete. Copies of the book will be donated to area libraries and other public facilities. Hear the discussion at 2:46:32 on the commission audio.
Commissioners also:
- Named the following slate of officers, effective Jan. 1, 2025, for the Grant PUD board of commissioners. As follows: President, Terry Pyle; Vice President, Larry Schaapman; Secretary, Judy Wilson; Commission Nelson Cox; and Commissioner Tom Flint. Commissioners typically rotate through these annual officer positions during their term(s) of office.
- Heard that Grant PUD cybersecurity systems detected and fixed 26,870 vulnerabilities in 2024. Enterprise Operations Manager Matt Johnson attributed the success to new, more robust scanning and detection tools. The utility’s “Azure Security score” created by Microsoft, is up 6.8 points in 2024 and is currently 27.5% higher than organizations of a similar size. The utility’s cybersecurity team has also hired specialists to hack into the system to identify the few vulnerabilities that required a fix. Efforts also continue to make Grant PUD employees more skilled in detecting viruses and suspicious emails. “We’ve really made a lot of progress,” Johnson said. Hear the discussion at 52:08 on the commission audio. See the full presentation on pages 4-15 of the presentation materials.
- Heard that PUD crews have removed more than 11 tons of materials potentially hazardous to boaters and other recreators on the Wanapum Reservoir. Most of the material is in the form of old cement-filled buckets or barrels with protruding rebar used as buoy anchors by shoreline-area property owners. Such anchors have never been allowed, Ross Hendrick, senior manager of Environmental Affairs, told commissioners during his quarterly business report. Grant PUD personnel are working on a communication plan to better educate the public about the dangers of leaving debris in the reservoirs. Hear the discussion at 1:22:27 on the commission audio. See the full presentation of Hendrick’s fourth-quarter business report on pages 16-33 of the presentation materials.
- Heard that Grant PUD has become a “template” for other utilities to follow for its efforts to get a key permit that avoided litigation from grease and oil spills. Senior Regulatory Specialist Carson Keeler said the utility worked with partner agencies to get a National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit, which required monitoring equipment installation at Priest Rapids and Wanapum dams to detect oil and grease above legal limits that could be discharged to the Columbia River. The environmental lobby group Columbia Riverkeepers filed a “notice of intent to sue” to Grant PUD and other utilities in 2018 for not having a [NPDES] spill permit. “It was a lengthy process, but we worked together,” Keeler told commissioners. “Now, we’re a well-oiled machine… without the oil.” Hear the discussion at 1:37:05 on the commission audio. See the full presentation on pages 25-33 of the presentation materials.
- Heard that customer service representatives working in Grant PUD’s locally staffed call center have achieved two significant goals in 2024. Jason Scheel, Customer Service Supervisor, told commissioners that the CSRs handled at least 95% of the approximately 7,000 monthly calls presented to them through the end of October. The CSRs also worked to make sure that at least 80% of all callers had a wait time of less than five minutes. Scheel said the call center is working to reduce calls with wait times longer than 10 minutes to achieve another key goal. Hear the discussion at 3:58:00 on the commission audio. See page 82 to 103 of the presentation packet.
- Unanimously approved Resolution 9071 to award a bid for acoustic tags for juvenile salmon and steelhead to Advanced Telemetry Systems of Isanti, Minnesota for $2, 206,050 plus applicable sales tax. Two companies bid on the contract, only the bid from Advanced was both commercially and technically compliant with Grant PUD requirements. For more information see pages 14-50 in the commission packet.
- Unanimously approved Resolution 9072 to award only bidder BOSS Construction, Inc. of Bellingham with a contract for $1,977,200.00 for Phase 2 of water-supply improvements at Grant PUD’s Carlton fish-acclimation facility. BOSS’ bid was below Grant PUD engineers’ estimate of $1,782 million plus 15%. For more information see pages 50-134 in the commission packet.
- Unanimously approved Motion 3500 to increase a contract with WEG Transformers USA by $28,412,006 for a new contract total of $47,758,749 plus sales tax and a revision/completion date of Sept. 30, 2028. The change involves an adjustment in bid item quantities considering current lead times and future project completion dates. The transformers will replace aged equipment or supplement existing equipment in residential/agricultural substations. For more information see pages 243-248 in the commission packet.
- Unanimously approved a 3-year, $2,225,677 contract with Blue Leaf Environmental, LGL, for conducting juvenile salmonid survival studies within the Priest Rapids and Wanapum Dam project areas from 2025-2027. The studies are a requirement of Grant PUD’s federal license to operate its dams. For more information see pages 249-280 in the commission packet.
- Unanimously approved Resolution 9075, awarding a contract to with MindCore Technologies of Terrebonne, Quebec, Canada, for $6,317,100 plus applicable sales tax for 230kV vertical break parallel aluminum horizontal mount disconnect switches. The purchase will supply Grant PUD material needs through 2028. MindCore was the lowest of seven bidders for the contract and was found to be both commercially and technincally compliant with the utility’s needs. For more information see pages 196-242 in the commission packet.
- Unanimously approved Motion 3502, authorizing the general manager/CEO to extend a contract with Arcos, LLC through Dec. 13, 2027 for a license cost of $324,045.72 and not-to-exceed total of $1.7 million. Arcos provides software for assigning and responding to meter-related work orders. For more information see pages 281-290 in the commission packet. Hear the discussion at 20:00 on the commission audio.
- Unanimously approved Motion 3503 to execute contract to sign a real estate purchase-and-sale agreement with the Estate of David L. Sparks for approximately 10 acres. The parcel is commonly known as Grant County Assessor Parcel No. 16-133-2000, Section 18, Township 18, Range 27, for $17,500. The land is located in a state-identified shrub-steppe biodiversity corridor. The purchase is a state requirement to mitigate for impacts from Grant PUD’s design and construction, through 2025, of a new Ephrata Service Center which will be located in a Fish and Wildlife Habitat Conservation Area comprise primarily of shrub-steppe habitat (sagebrush, grasses and some invasive vegetation). For more information see pages 291-303 in the commission packet.