Holding steady: No rate increase in 2022 for Grant County PUD customers

EPHRATA — The Grant County Public Utility District will not raise its rates in 2022 for any of its customers, according to the preliminary PUD budget.

Utility district commissioners will review the budget at today’s regular meeting, with approval scheduled for Nov. 23. Rates have remained unchanged since 2019.

“For 2022, there are no rate increases planned,” said John Mertlich, the PUD’s senior manager of financial planning and analysis.

The 2022 budget projects expenditures of $285.27 million. The 2021 budget projected expenses of $278.42 million, but expenses are actually coming in lower. The revised 2021 budget projection shows expenditures at about $269.4 million for the year.

The 2022 budget projects a net income of $76.21 million at the end of 2022.

Mertlich said the PUD is in pretty good financial health.

“The utility is in a very good position to meet its targets for 2022,” he said.

The PUD is projected to have more cash on hand than the budget target, and more money available for operation than the target. The amount of debt is projected to be about 47% of the PUD’s total assets; the goal is to have less than 60%.

The expenses include some major projects, including the continuing refurbishment of turbines and generators at Priest Rapids Dam. Refurbishing the 10 turbine-generator combines began in 2016, and the goal was to upgrade one unit per year.

But, Mertlich said, the schedule fell victim to the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It was impacted by the supply chain disruption,” he said.

The economic disruptions also affected another major project – work on reinforcing the right bank of the Columbia River at the Priest Rapids Dam. The reinforcement project is designed to stop an unlikely, but possible situation of a 6-magnitude earthquake or bigger, which could cause the right bank to crumble.

The Priest Rapids Dam turbine upgrades are projected to cost about $76.2 million from 2022 to 2026, and the generator refurbishment is projected to cost about $16.9 million in the same time frame. The riverbank reinforcements are projected to cost about $51.9 million from 2022 to 2026.

The 2022 budget also includes a continuing project to build new transmission lines to Quincy. Two major projects are scheduled in Quincy, one to the Mountain View substation, which is projected to cost $33.6 million for 2022-26. The second is to the Monument Hill substation, projected at $15.6 million for 2022-26.