This week's commission meeting took place at the Hydro Office Building near Wanapum Dam.


Reminder!  Hearings for 2025 budget are Oct. 8

    

Tree limbs that conceal or blow into power lines are a leading cause of power outages in wind-prone Grant County. Grant PUD has the legal right and obligation to trim interfering trees to ensure our electric grid is safe and reliable for all customers. Since public safety is paramount to our mission, we don’t need the property owner’s permission to trim, nor will we give prior notice before trimming.

Since January, Grant PUD customers have been able to talk with a live and local customer service representative on seven days a week (excluding holidays and training days) from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. The program has enabled customers to have greater access to help for their accounts and power service, said Cary West, Senior Manager of Customer Solutions during his department’s quarterly report for the PUD commissioners during their meeting on Sept. 10.

Grant PUD has 75 applications for new and expanding power service from large-load customers in a queue maintained by the Large Power Solutions team. 

(NOTE: Portions of this meeting weren't recorded due to technical troubles. We're working to fix them. Until then, you can find the recorded portion on YouTube here.

Grant PUD is planning to bring in more power resources to serve Grant County customers in 2026. Before that happens, staff is working with the commissioners to reaffirm the long-standing policy that core customers – residential, agricultural, and small business customers – will be the first supplied with low-cost power generation benefits provided by the Priest Rapids Project (PRP).  

At Grant PUD, there is a strong belief in the power of coming together to create opportunities for the next generation. This belief was at the heart of the recent Solar Car Days event at Big Bend Community College, where Grant PUD collaborated with eight amazing partners to bring this annual event to life.

(Editor's note: We'll add timestamps as soon as the meeting recording is available. Sorry for the delay. )

Proposed changes to Grant PUD’s rate-setting policy would preserve the lowest-cost power for “core” residential, irrigation, agricultural and commercial customer classes and create new parameters for how much all customers pay for their electricity.

A participant (and fellow detective) in Grant PUD’s Monster Detective Collective in Ephrata, WA

We recently had the pleasure of hosting the Monster Detective Collective Learning Lab, a series of interactive and educational events designed to teach elementary-aged kids about energy conservation and sustainability. These events were all about sparking curiosity, having fun, and connecting with our community. 
(Photo caption:  Annette Lovitt with the Public Affairs Team at Grant PUD teaching the Learning Lab to young detectives)

Grant PUD has been offered $1.1 million in state grant funding to buy and install energy-saving electric appliances for qualifying low- or moderate-income customers and small businesses.

(Note: We'll post the audio timestamps as soon as the commission recording becomes available. Sorry for the delay.)


Commissioners kicked off their June 25, 2024 meeting by celebrating the 14 employees since the COVID pandemic ended who had successfully completed three-year apprenticeships for careers as Grant PUD power plant operators, power system electricians, linemen, electronic technicians and meter relay technicians.

Grant PUD plans to spread some powerful fun throughout Grant County this year through the North Central Washington Libraries’ free 2024 Summer Program.

(Note: Work continues on a new system for posting commission audio. When the audio is availble for this and previous meetings we'll post it and add timestamps in each respective recap. Sorry, again, for the delay.)

Grant PUD Commissioners learned Tuesday that the Washington State Auditor’s Office found three issues during a recent audit of utility’s compliance with the Clean Energy Transformation Act (CETA) from Jan. 1, 2019 through Dec. 31, 2021. This was Grant PUD’s first compliance audit for CETA which was enacted into Washington state law on May 7, 2019.     

EPHRATA – Grant PUD commissioners announced today during their monthly workshop that Rich Wallen will remain as the utility’s Chief Executive Officer/General Manager. 

Note: We're still working through a new process for posting the commission audio. We'll add timestamps and audio as soon as we can. Very sorry for the delay.


Grant PUD’s Irrigation Service Rate 3 would be rebranded as “Agricultural Service” and expanded to include separate categories for electricity used for irrigation and other ag activities — if further study proves it financially viable.

EPHRATA – Rich Wallen, Grant PUD general manager/chief executive officer, has announced his resignation from the utility. The resignation, which was given to Grant PUD’s Board of Commissioners on May 7, is effective on June 14.