Grant County PUD unveils 2017 budget

Cheryl Schweizer/Columbia Basin Herald Bonnie Overfield of the Grant County PUD goes through the details of the 2017 budget at a public hearing Tuesday.

by CHERYL SCHWEIZER
Staff Writer | October 13, 2016 1:00 AM

MOSES LAKE — The Grant County PUD’s budget for 2017 will be $307,301,000 with about 45 percent, $182 million, going to capital projects. Utility district officials detailed the proposed budget – not including 2017 electrical rates – at a public hearing in Moses Lake Tuesday.

It was one of three public hearings.

The rate discussion is separate and scheduled for November, when the budget and rates will be approved by PUD commissioners, said Bonnie Overfield of the PUD’s accounting department.

The biggest capital project is the continuing upgrade and refurbishment of turbines and generators at Wanapum and Priest Rapids dams, Overfield said. The project has been underway for years, and still has about a decade to completion.

The first phase of the project, refurbishing the turbines at Wanapum Dam, is finished, said PUD commission chair Tom Flint. The second phase is almost finished; three generators at Wanapum are in the process of upgrades. The work at Priest Rapids started in August. There are 10 turbine-generator units at Priest Rapids, and one will be upgraded each year.

Flint said the turbines at Wanapum had to be redesigned, and that helped increase the dam’s efficiency. The turbines at Priest Rapids don’t need the same kind of redesign, and PUD officials are trying to reuse as many pieces of the existing turbines and generators as possible, Flint said.

But the project is expensive, and a lot of it is financed by borrowing money. Overfield said the need to borrow money has an impact on the amount of cash the district keeps on hand. A better bond rating (currently the district is rated AA) cuts the amount of interest the PUD has to pay, Overfield said.

The PUD also is working on projects for the electrical distribution system, and is projected to spend about $68,655,000 on those. They include work on the spillgates at Wanapum, expansion in the Quincy area and modifications to the distribution system. Utility district officials also are working on a plan to remodel and add to recreation facilities at Crescent Bar.

Residential customers are the largest class in terms of numbers, and generate about 17 percent of energy sales, Overfield said. Large industrial customers are the largest revenue generators, accounting for 52.5 percent of energy sales. Irrigation customers are the third-largest class, generating 13.6 percent of energy sales.

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at education@columbiabasinherald.com.