PUD and Port of Moses Lake discuss joint approach to development
MOSES LAKE — Commissioners from the Port of Moses Lake met with three of the five Grant County Public Utility District (PUD) commissioners on Monday to improve communication between the two agencies and come to an agreement about the future of economic growth in Grant County.
“It’s about family wage jobs,” said PUD Commissioner Bob Bernd. “We all have the same goal for our kids and our grandkids.”
Bernd was responding to concerns from Port Commission President David “Kent” Jones that it was taking too long to get power to large industrial customers interested in locating to Grant County.
“There’s no sense in trying to recruit a large power user if there’s no power,” Jones said.
PUD commissioners said lack of power is not the problem. Grant County is connected to the regional power grid, and can always go out into the electricity market to buy power if needed.
“It’s important to the PUD to see large industrial growth continue,” said PUD Commission President Terry Brewer. “It’s very important and we don’t want to shut it off.”
Currently, Brewer said, the PUD’s rate structure has larger industrial customers subsidizing residential and agricultural power users, who pay less than the cost of generating power.
They also talked about the challenge of cryptocurrency miners seeking to take advantage of Grant County’s relatively inexpensive power.
“People are making money, but it’s not our people,” said Port Commissioner Darrin Jackson.
Jackson cited the example of electricity in Niagara County, N.Y., which saw electricity rates increase 400 percent after cryptocurrency developers — who use a great deal of electricity to power computers as they crunch complex mathematical equations to “mine” cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin — inundated that county.
Cryptocurrency developers have been criticized for using a great deal of electricity and providing few jobs in return.
“Crypto employs nobody,” Jackson said. “I don’t see how that benefits my daughter or granddaughter or anyone else in the county.”
PUD officials cited the new, higher electricity rates for cyptocurrency developers — something power companies across the country have done to meet the challenge to grids and generation of power-hungry, job-poor cryptocurrency miners.
PUD commissioners also told Port officials that it is important to work closely with large industrial customers, or potential industrial customers, to determine their power needs. Over the last year or so, Port officials say they are not sure what to tell potential large industrial clients about the county’s power supply.
Brewer said it takes a lot of work with an industry or potential industrial client to determine exactly how much power they need and how best to get it to them.
“I have 21 years of experience,” Brewer said. “There wasn’t a customer I ever met that didn’t have immediate needs. But most clients don’t have the whole picture when they come. They just know what they want.”
Brewer said the PUD wants to be a “partner” for the Port of Moses Lake, and would like to have a process in place to work more closely with the Port as it seeks to lure large industrial customers to the region.
Dean Hankins, a member of the Moses Lake City Council, asked the three PUD commissioners if it would be possible for the utility district to impose the same kind temporary or ever permanent bans on cryptocurrency operations that many cities across the county have.
“We would have issues with our obligation to serve,” said PUD General Manager Kevin Nordt.
Nordt said the new rate class for “evolving industries” has resulted in a significant reduction in the number of cryptocurrency operations applying for power, and has also pulled “traditional industrial users” to the head of the line.
“We didn’t want to end up in court,” Brewer added.