Grant PUD commissioners and leadership are committed to ensuring that our “core customers” – residential, ag, irrigation and small/medium-sized business – continue to receive the most favorable rates this utility can offer.
That means, as it always has, that our core customers have first right to the benefits of the electricity generated by our Columbia River dams, Priest Rapids and Wanapum, and rates based on the lowest-cost energy we can provide. Currently, that’s our own low-cost hydropower.
When Grant PUD was just a dream nearly 100 years ago, the people who are today our core customers did the arduous work to make that dream a reality. They and their counterparts in Central Washington successfully lobbied the state to enact the law that made public utility districts possible. It was their vision and can-do spirit that built our dams. Our commitment to provide them preferential access to the power generated by the dams at the lowest possible rates is their reward.
Our country is experiencing an unprecedented increase in the demand for electrical power driven by the growth of environmental concerns, increasing computing requirements, and the emergence of artificial intelligence.
Grant County has become a favored location for computing and other electrically dependent industries because of our low-cost power, to the point we have been forced to explore additional generation projects to meet this demand. It has been and will continue to be our philosophy that those who are driving this increased demand – our large industrial customers – will pay the cost of developing and building any new generation capacity required to supply that demand.
Costs based on any low-cost hydropower not needed to supply our core customers will continue to be blended into the higher costs paid by our industrials, so they’ll still get a benefit, as they should.
We’re finally outgrowing the benefits of the dams we built in the 1950s and 60s. Any additional energy we add or develop will be more expensive.
It costs an average of approximately $25 per megawatt hour to produce our hydropower. By comparison, solar and wind power each cost about $75 per megawatt hour but are available only intermittently. The best current options for power available around the clock are natural gas and the promising but still largely untested “small modular reactor” nuclear plants. Both of these have costs well in excess of wind and solar and will take years for permitting and construction. Any power we buy from the regional wholesale market averages about $60-$90 per megawatt hour.
Like every business, we face inflationary pressures. The cost of materials required to operate and maintain our dams and infrastructure have been and will likely continue to increase for the foreseeable future. Over time, rates for all customer groups must go up to cover these costs to keep our utility sustainable. We’re working to ensure these increases remain small and predictable, as you all have repeatedly requested.
If you have any doubt about this utility’s ongoing commitment to our core customers, come to a commission meeting or contact any of your elected commissioners at
Terry Pyle
President, Grant PUD Commission