Workshop set to explain PUD rate structure

EPHRATA - Grant County PUD officials will sponsor a workshop for customers to explain a new study that will help determine electrical rates in the future. The workshop tentatively is scheduled for the week of Aug. 11.

The second of the three workshops is scheduled for today in the commissioners' meeting room at the Ephrata headquarters, 30 C St. SW. Jeremy Nolan, a PUD employee working on the project, said PUD employees would be available as long as necessary to answer questions from customers.

No specific date has been established for the third workshop, PUD spokesperson Chuck Allen said.

Nolan said the first step was to study revenue for the last 10 years, followed by a study of costs over the 10 years. Two of the three workshops were (and are) designed for customers to look at the data collected so far and get their reaction.

The last workshop will explain the program developed to help make rate change decisions, Nolan said.

Nolan presented the report to the PUD commissioners at their regular meeting July 22. In other business, board members received the first report on the PUD's 2015 capital budget.

The report mostly covered expenditures, which are expected to decrease about 5.6 percent, said Bonnie Overfield, who gave the presentation. Capital projects, things like planned generator and turbine upgrades, will increase about 10 percent, Overfield said. The budget estimates don't include about $40 million to repair the damaged spillway pillar at Wanapum Dam, she said.

In answer to a question from commissioner Tom Flint, Overfield said Wanapum Dam expenses will be paid in 2014, so they're not being carried forward.

Labor costs are projected to increase about six-tenths of 1 percent, Overfield said. The overall number of employees has decreased, she said. That's part of the reason benefit costs will not change in 2015, she said.

Major construction projects include ongoing work on the generators at Wanapum Dam and the turbines at Priest Rapids Dam. Projects to ensure continued stabilization of the riverbanks will be ongoing at Wanapum and Priest Rapids, she said.

Other smaller projects are planned for Ephrata, Quincy, Wheeler Road and Royal City, Overfield said.