Grant PUD’s 2020 ended with good financial health

EPHRATA — While 2020 was tough on most businesses, it was not quite as tough on Grant PUD.

John Mertlich, financial analyst for the public utility district, said in 2020 the district finished the year in the black.

“We weathered the storm pretty well,” Merlich said. “We’re a little bit insulated, because as a power company, it’s not a product people stop using. We were pretty fortunate.”

Mertlich said growth continued in the large industrial customer class, despite the shutdowns and restrictions associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. Most of that growth was driven by expansion in data center operations in the county, he said. That growth is projected to continue.

In addition, the PUD sells excess generation on the wholesale electricity market, and the wholesale prices were better than anticipated, Mertlich said.

However, the PUD had to delay some projects that were scheduled for 2020, Mertlich said, due to the pandemic restrictions, and many employees weren’t on site during most of the year. While that reduced expenses in 2020, the work will have to be done later.

The PUD measures its financial health with a series of benchmarks, and for 2020 the district met those, Mertlich said. The PUD had about $174 million in cash on hand at the end of 2020. Bonnie Overfield, the senior manager of the PUD’s treasury division, said some of that money already was allocated for projects in 2021.

Utility district officials have a target for the amount of cash on hand, which was $105 million in 2020, and when there’s more cash than that, some of it can be put to work on projects.

The district also met its target for the amount of debt it has, called debt to net plant ratio. The goal was to have debt that’s a maximum of 60% of the PUD’s assets. For 2020, that came in at 55%.

Utility district officials met the benchmark for balancing its expenses against its revenue, called the operating ratio. The lower the ratio, the better the utility is doing in managing expenses. The PUD benchmark was to be at 112%, and for 2020 the district came in at 101%. As a result, when the PUD issues bonds to raise money, it has a AA bond rating, the second highest available.