Grant PUD fiber, wireless workshop set for Feb. 13

EPHRATA — The cost of providing electrical service, the costs and benefits of the Grant County PUD fiber optic network and electrical rates for individual customer classes will be the subjects of workshops in February and early March. The goal is to set individual customer class rates by early April, said PUD chief financial officer John Janney.

The fiber workshop is set for Feb. 13; PUD employees will review both the fiber project and the supplemental wireless project.

The PUD has been working on the fiber project since 2001, but it hasn’t reached all parts of Grant County yet. Utility district officials started the wireless project in 2015 to provide service to those places where fiber hasn’t reached.

The PUD is prohibited from providing fiber to customers directly. Instead it provides wholesale service to businesses who sell to retail customers.

Janney said the goal of the review is to determine how much the broadband program really costs, and how much those costs impact electrical rates. Utility district general manager Kevin Nordt said the workshop would cover other subjects as well.

Utility district officials are also working on updates to the “cost of service” analysis. Janney said the goal is to present the study’s conclusions to PUD commissioners and customers by early March at the latest.

The cost of service is part of the district’s rate-setting policy, a method of analyzing what it actually costs to provide electricity to PUD customers. The policy generated considerable controversy when it was implemented in 2014. It’s part of the PUD’s rate policy, which mandates an overall 2 percent rate increase per year for 10 years.

The policy also stipulated customer classes had to pay at least 80 percent of the cost of their service, and shouldn’t pay more than 15 percent above the cost of their service. That became controversial when the study revealed some classes, irrigation and residential among them, were paying 20 to 30 percent less than the cost of their service.

Janney said the goal is to give commissioners the information so they can set the rates by early April. The budget, approved in November, projects an overall 2 percent rate increase. But different classes will have different rates; some may be less than 2 percent, some may be more. Those are the rates to be set in April.

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