Grant PUD meetings on fiber scheduled

EPHRATA — Grant County PUD customers will have a chance to tell commissioners their opinions and ideas for the PUD’s fiber network at two community meetings, one Tuesday in Ephrata and the second on Thursday in George.

Tuesday’s meeting is scheduled for 2 p.m. at the commission hearing room at PUD headquarters, 30 Southwest C St. in Ephrata. Thursday’s meeting is at 6 p.m. at the George Community Hall, 403 West Montmorency Blvd.

Options for expansion that are under consideration will be discussed, including the pros and cons of each, said Chuck Allen, PUD public information specialist.

At the request of commissioners, PUD employees are conducting an extensive review of the existing fiber system and its extension to places it doesn’t reach currently. The fiber system covers about 70 percent of the county.

Among other things, commissioners asked for an estimate of the cost of the fiber buildout and if the wireless portion of the fiber program was meeting its goals. Commissioners wanted the information before making decisions about the program’s future.

Chief financial officer John Janney told commissioners at previous meetings that the PUD has invested about $242 million in the current system.

Utility district officials commissioned a study from an outside consultant. The results showed that extending the service to the remaining 30 percent of the county will be more expensive due to the distances involved.

Utility district employees did a “rate impact analysis” to determine if, or how, continuing the fiber buildout would impact the PUD’s overall finances, and as a result the impact on electric rates. Janney, talking about the results at the April 11 commission meeting, said the analysis looked at the system with a lot of users, with a few users, and an option in between.

Depending on the different criteria used, electrical rates would have to be raised by an estimated 2.7 percent to 4.6 percent, Janney said. The idea is to generate a specific amount of money for the fiber program during the period analyzed, which was 30 years, so there would be an impact on rates for the entire period, he said.

The conclusions were based, he said, on what it would take to generate that specific amount over the 30 years being analyzed.

The wireless program was also analyzed, and with the current technology it would be more expensive to maintain the wireless system than continue to build the fiber, Janney said.

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