Grant PUD 2025 budget approved

EPHRATA — The Grant County Public Utility District is projected to spend about $312.2 million in 2025, when all income and expenses are added up. Utility district commissioners approved the 2025 budget Dec. 10. The PUD is projected to end 2025 with about $237.8 million in carryover.  

Expenses will be higher in 2025 than the budget projection for 2024, but projected revenue offsets for 2025 are higher than 2024 projected revenue. Offsets revenue is derived from sources other than retail power sales.  

Projected expenses in 2025 are $577 million, with $264.8 million in projected offset revenue. Offset revenue sources include customers that pay the costs of construction needed to give them PUD power and sales of electricity that’s not needed by PUD customers.  

Christine Pratt, PUD public information officer, said commissioners also approved a 3% overall rate increase that will go into effect in April 2025. Since it’s 3% overall, different customer classes will have different rates of increase.  

“The need for a rate increase is determined by the amount of expected income Grant PUD needs to ensure operation and maintenance expenses are covered,” Pratt said. 

Operations and maintenance expenses are projected at $236.5 million.  

“Operations and maintenance expenses include all spending necessary to keep the utility functioning and providing safe and reliable service,” Pratt wrote in a press release.  

The capital projects budget was projected at about $243.3 million. Most of that, about $179.9 million, is allocated to the power delivery system.  

About $9.7 million was removed from the capital budget; Angelina Johnson, senior manager of treasury and financial planning said at the Nov. 26 commission meeting that some projects weren’t ready yet. 

“(Deferred proposals included) things that we didn’t see being feasible for us to complete in a year, or that we didn’t find value in completing,” she said. “Projects that were proposed that we didn’t have enough information (about) to come up with a benefit to the district. We had them sent back for deferment to a later date, or maybe not (approved) at all.” 

The budget projection for electricity sales was boosted with the sale of a portion of energy generated at the Wanapum and Priest Rapids dams to Brookfield Renewable Trading and Marketing. The transaction is called a slice contract. 

In a slice contract, the PUD sells its share of the two dams’ generation to outside parties, who then provide electricity to meet the PUD’s needs up to a previously established threshold. A slice contract can be for the PUD’s whole share, or it can be sold in increments. Brookfield purchased a 10% slice, which cost about $46 million.  

The PUD is projected to keep growing, but not as fast as the projection in 2023. Bryndon Ecklund, lead financial analyst for the PUD, said in an earlier interview that most of the projected growth was in the industrial sector, and the construction schedule for some of those businesses has changed from the original projections. 

“The (reduction) was a result of construction delays as it relates to industrial load. So we’re bringing that load on a little slower because of the construction delays. Looking out to 2026, it starts to pick back up and ramp up at that point in time,” Ecklund said.