Commision's reaction to proposed rates mixed
EPHRATA — The Grant County Public Utility District's commissioners reviewed new and revised industrial rate schedules at their regular meeting Monday. The rates schedules came recommended by the district's general manager and staff for approval on Oct. 3.
The PUD staff and commission have held numerous workshops and public meetings to discuss rate matters to prepare for Nov. 1 when new power sales contracts start.
However, this latest proposal, which PUD staff members have urged the commission to adopt, has received mixed reviews.
Commission president Bill Bjork said that the staff did a great job putting the industrial rate recommendation together, ahead of schedule, and the commission will now be on time with their self-imposed deadline of Oct. 1 for adopting new industrial rates.
Bjork said he had no problems with the rates, for now, and that they can be reviewed at a later date if necessary.
Economic development boosters and industrial ratepayers had been expecting lower rates because of the relicensing of the Priest Rapids Hydroelectric Project.
They believe the cost of electricity to industrial customers should go down because the PUD would no longer be buying nearly 60 percent of its power from the Bonneville Power Administration at higher than project cost.
Brian Meiners, plant manager for Basic American Foods, said he will have to take a closer look at the PUD staff's most recent draft for future electric boiler rates before he knows if he will be moving from natural gas to fire his boilers.
"They're a little higher for electrical boiler load than I would have liked," Meiners said Monday after the meeting.
Calvin Green, of Eka Chemicals in Moses Lake, said the rates seem to be getting better each meeting.
Green said Eka has been in Grant County for 15 years and they hope to keep their business and employees there. But, if the cost of making their products rises even 2 percent for the paper-chemicals company, customers will start getting the product they make from somewhere else and that could mean lost jobs, he said.
"We're doing what we can internally to control our costs," Green said. "Passing costs on to a customer doesn't work in our business."
Commissioner Vera Claussen said she would have preferred the proposed industrial rates be closer to the cost of service.
"It's not everything I wanted," Claussen said. "It's a compromise."
Commissioner Tom Flint said he will not be at the Oct. 3 meeting to vote on the proposed rates from the PUD staff, but if he were, he would vote in favor of them.
He said industrial customers wanted long-term rate stability and this proposal offers that.
"The proposal today offers rate stability, which is most important to everybody," Flint said.
Flint added that when the rest of the power comes on line from Wanapum Dam around 2009, the PUD commission can then revisit rate design for all the classes again.
Commissioner Greg Hansen has in past meetings expressed concern that a rate schedule which encourages industrial customers to use more energy would eventually gobble up Priest Rapids Hydroelectric Power and force the utility to purchase power on the open market and increase rates. He continued Monday to push for a more cautious rate design.
Hansen said he was not really satisfied with the latest proposal offered by staff. He said the PUD needs to be careful with the resources it manages and look out for the future and all rate classes.
Hansen said that industrial ratepayers were receiving a good deal with the current proposal, and appeared to be getting a 2 percent decrease in their costs for power.
"I'm not against industrial customers, because we need industrial growth," Hansen said. "But we need to plan for relicensing and fish costs that are coming and be conservative at what price we sell power to industrial."