Grant PUD to review new customer process

EPHRATA — A blizzard of inquiries about and requests for electrical service has Grant County PUD officials rethinking how the utility responds to new customers, and starting a year-long project to revamp the process.

The PUD received 20 inquiries about electrical service in the first three weeks of October alone, said Dave Churchman of the PUD accounting department. In the last three or four months the PUD has experienced “very, very unprecedented requests for services,” said general manager Kevin Nordt.

Most of the requests have been from customers who would fit in the light industrial category, Class 7. “The upfront cost is much, much less,” said Jeremy Nolan of the PUD’s accounting department. Some have come from customers in Class 15, the heavy industrial class.

Much of the activity apparently is connected to the recent surge in prices for “cryptocurrency,” driven by recent record prices for the stocks, exemplified by Bitcoin. Bitcoin uses a technology called “blockchains,” which allows the parties involved in a transaction to have and process more information.

“Sounds like a lot of fishing is going on,” said commissioner Tom Flint. If the PUD starts to work on the inquiries and they end as quickly as they began, the PUD could’ve spent a lot of money for nothing, he said. “We don’t want to be left holding the bag.”

Nordt said that’s why PUD employees will be spending the next year looking at the current application system and the current rate structure.

The PUD still has room to grow, but it’s starting to run up against the limits of its share of the output from Wanapum and Priest Rapids dams. In the current forecast, “we will run through our existing resources in 2022,” Nolan said. Brent Bischoff, PUD engineer, said it might be necessary to consider major new transmission lines, a third one into Moses Lake and a second into Quincy, depending on growth. Whatever the ultimate fate of the current flood of inquiries, new kinds of businesses are considering locating in Grant County, Nordt said.

In light of all that, he said, it’s important to ensure the PUD’s rate structure and application process can handle what’s coming, and not spend a lot of money on projects that never happen.

Shane Lunderville of the PUD’s accounting office said the staff wants to revise the current processes to ensure the PUD recovers its costs. The second goal is to ensure the rates charged to various customer classes fit within the overall parameters of rate policy, Nolan said. That will include an update to the PUD’s cost of service study, scheduled to take about six months, and updates to rate schedules, where those apply.

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