Commission workshop, 6/9/2026 -- Bill-rounding proposed for April 2027

Commissioners expressed no opposition to a proposal to round customers’ bills to the nearest dollar in response to the federal government’s decision to discontinue minting new pennies after November 2025. Cash payments are currently rounded up or down to the nearest 5 cents. The rounding proposal is expected to have minimal impact on customer bills and Grant PUD’s annual bill revenue.

Senior Manager of Customer Solutions Cary West said Douglas County PUD has been rounding its own customers’ bills to the nearest dollar for approximately 20 years and its records show that the small, monthly payment overages or underages balance themselves out over a 12-month period. Bill rounding would be slated to begin April 1, 2027. See the full report on pages 9-14 of the workshop presentation materials.

Commissioners also:

-- Heard from staff that cryptocurrency miners currently classified as “Evolving Industry” Rate Schedule 17 customers no longer present the business and regulatory risk they once did. Grant PUD’s customer service policy requires staff to conduct a risk analysis every two years. 

Cryptocurrency is currently the only customer considered an evolving industry. Staff’s analysis shows that cryptocurrencies are going mainstream on a global level, are no longer driving hook-up and transmission build requests and do not present sizeable risks such as loss of load or asset overloading as they once did.

Staff has recommended that crypto be moved out of Rate 17 for evolving industries and be grouped with data centers in the proposed, “High Density Compute” rate schedule to be presented with the 2026 Cost of Service study as part of the commission’s 2017 electric-rate actions. See the full report on pages 15-28 of the workshop presentation materials.

-- Indefinitely tabled a proposal to create a reduced electric rate for schools, hospitals and government offices, amid commission concerns about fairness. More analysis of those groups’ existing rate classes will happen in the future before commissioners revisit the proposal. See the full presentation on pages 1-8 of the workshop presentation materials.

-- Heard a staff proposal to sell Shell Energy North America 150 megawatts of a blend of market power and clean hydropower from Priest Rapids and Wanapum dams from January 2027 to December 2029. Shell would deliver to Grant PUD the same amount of market power to help supply local customer demand.

The sale would enable Grant PUD to receive a premium price for energy delivered for an estimated revenue gain of $7.8 million annually or $23.6 million over the three-year contract. Commissioners are scheduled to vote on the deal at their June 23 meeting.

Staff is collecting bids for another contract to sell 10% to 30% of the dams’ output and will return to the commission with details this fall. 

The contracts take into account Grant PUD’s need to comply with regional power-sharing programs, clean energy regulations and integration of new resources into Grant PUD’s energy supply. See the full report on pages 34-43 of the workshop presentation materials.