Public meetings scheduled to review 2017 PUD rates

EPHRATA — Grant County PUD customers will be able to have their say on proposed 2017 electric rates at two public meetings March 6.

The first public meeting to review the new rates and get customer reaction is scheduled at 2 p.m. in Ephrata in the commission room at PUD headquarters, 30 Southwest C Street. The second will be at 6 p.m. in Moses Lake, at a location to be determined.

The goal is to have the 2017 rates ready for implementation by April 1, said Jeremy Noakes of the PUD’s accounting department. Noakes laid out a timeline at the regular PUD commission meeting Tuesday.

Utility district rates are based on information generated through a “cost of service analysis,” which the district first used in 2015. Commissioners approved a policy in 2014 that requires all customer classes to pay at least 80 percent of the cost of providing their service, and customers aren't supposed to pay more than 15 percent over the cost of their service.

That has caused some controversy, since some classes, like residential and irrigation customers, don’t hit the 80 percent threshold, and other classes, like large industrial customers are paying more than 15 percent over the cost of service.

Currently district policy forecasts an overall rate increase of two percent a year for at least 10 years. Different rate classes will pay different rates, however.

Utility district employees did a reassessment of the cost of service because, Noakes said, conditions in the district have changed since 2015. The PUD has a deal with Shell Energy which governs sales from power generation, and is selling bonds for upgrades to Priest Rapids Dam. The charges for electricity delivered to irrigation districts will change in 2017 as well. Noakes said all of that as well as other changes impacts revenue and expenses.

Utility district officials are working with a 10-year projection on rates, he said, which has been extended to 2026, with a review in 2024. That was the original 10-year projection.

Noakes said the specifics of rate design and the new rates will be reviewed in detail at a March 6 commission meeting. In answer to a question from commissioner Bob Bernd, Noakes said the new rates for each class would be part of that meeting, along with a history of each rate class for the past few years.

Noakes said the PUD staff would ask for approval of 2017 rates at the March 28 meeting. The three weeks will give commissioners and PUD employees time to consider the public input, he said.

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