Grant PUD customers to see an average 1.5 percent rate increase

EPHRATA — Electrical rates will be going up for most Grant County PUD customers, effective April 1. The rate proposal was unveiled at the regular PUD commission meeting Tuesday.

If they are approved, the new rates will go into effect April 1.

Residential customers will receive an average 1.5 percent rate increase. Jeremy Nolan of the PUD’s accounting department said that will translate to an average increase of $1.49 per month for residential customers. Nolan cautioned that’s the average – the actual increase will depend on the customer’s electrical use. For some customers it will be higher, for other customers it will be lower.

General service business customers (Class 2) will receive an average 2.1 percent increase, an estimated $6.43 per month on average. The average increase for irrigation customers (Class 3) will be 3.4 percent, about $24.65 per month on average for the seven months of irrigation season. Large general customers (Class 7) will have an average 1 percent increase, about $73.85 on average.

The average increase for industrial customers in Class 15 was estimated at seven-tenths of 1 percent. Class 14 industrial customers and Class 16 ag food processors each will see an average increase of about 5 percent.

Nolan said customers in those classes are different enough that it was impossible to establish a single average cost.

The current PUD policy stipulates an overall rate increase of 2 percent each year through 2024. It also sets a target that all customers will be paying at least 80 percent of the cost of their electrical service by 2024, and not more than 15 percent above the cost of their electrical service.

Those costs are based on a study first performed in 2015. Nolan said the “cost of service analysis” is reviewed each year and subjected to deeper analysis periodically.

Nolan said PUD analysts only look at the capital expenses associated with the electrical distribution system when determining the cost of service. (The distribution system is the actual wires, poles and substations.) Those capital expenses are allocated to different classes by the way they use the distribution system, he said.

Residential customers and irrigators are the two biggest users of the distribution system, Nolan said.

The report Nolan gave to the commissioners was presented at a public meeting Tuesday afternoon, and is available on the PUD website. Comments can be submitted at the website, and a comment period has been set aside at the Feb. 13 commission meeting.

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