Workshop on PUD rate structure later this month

EPHRATA - Grant County PUD operators will sponsor a workshop to explain a rate structure that will set all PUD rates at least through 2023. Tentatively it's scheduled for the last week in August, with the date to be announced, PUD spokesperson Chuck Allen said.

Currently PUD employees are working with a consulting firm on a "cost of service" study, which determines the cost of providing electricity to each class of customers. The results are used to help determine how much revenue the PUD will need for operations.

The PUD board of commissioners adopted a resolution in September 2013, which said no class of customer should pay more than 15 percent more than the actual cost of electrical service. The resolution states every customer must pay at least 80 percent of the cost of service.

The goal is to have all rates in line with that policy by December 2023.

The first step is figuring out what it actually costs to provide service, and that study is underway now, Allen said. The analysis will determine how much it costs to produce, transmit and distribute electricity, then will determine how much electricity and maintenance services are used by each class of customers.

Customers will get a look at the conclusions of the study at the late August workshop, Allen said. Any rate adjustments "will be based on a long term trajectory," he said, to get rates within the established parameter by the 2023 target date.

"The policy is to adopt rate changes in small predictable increases to fulfill revenue requirements," Allen said, and PUD officials plan to stay with that policy.

Traditionally cost analysis is built on year-to-year adjustments, but the PUD plan will be on a 10-year average, rolling over every year, PUD financial analyst Jeremy Nolan said. Nolan gave an update on the project at the July 22 PUD commissioner meeting.

"A lot of data gathering," Nolan said. The process includes information about transmission, power management, customer service, among other subjects, and how it all works with the PUD strategic plan.

Some of the data needed wasn't available, Nolan said, and suggested PUD officials put plans in place to ensure all the information needed is retained in the future.