Grant County PUD was at the center of a recent article in The Capital Press. Many of the comments made in the article were inaccurate with omissions, assumptions and accusations made. The Commission is responding publicly to the landowners and other public residents to correct inaccurate information.  

Public notices about the transmission line project were communicated through various processes that the PUD utilizes in an outreach process. They included but were not limited to a direct mailer to over 600 property owners within 1,000 feet of the proposed projects, social media (i.e. PUD web page, Facebook and Twitter), press releases in The Quincy Valley Post Register 1/27/2022 and 2/3/2022, in The Columbia Basin Herald 1/28/2022 and 2/4/2022, PUD press releases via online newsletter, billing inserts, and notification to state agencies and tribal government partners.  

Open houses were held in person on 2/22/2022 in George, Wash., at the George Community Hall, 5 to 7 p.m., 3/2/2022 at the Port of Quincy, 5 to 7 p.m., and a virtual option on 3/3/2022 from 6 to 7 p.m. After the three public meetings and allowing time for public comments, a route determination was made. Two of the proposed line routes 1 & 2 presented challenges not only with the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife with a land swap mitigation process but they are also highly sensitive cultural areas. Route 3 was incumbered with Department of Natural Resource and Bureau of Reclamation Land that would require an environmental impact analysis. It was determined that after public comment or lack thereof, Route 4b appeared to be the best option. From the comments received by the public, three favored routes 1 & 2, five favored route 3 and ten favored route 4b. It was also determined that the best route from a business perspective was 4b as it would allow the PUD to move the poles out of the Grant County franchise/easement on Beverly Burke Road by moving the poles approximately five feet inward from where they currently existed.   

In December 2022, a letter was sent out to inform the public of the line route selection being 4b. After that announcement there were a few landowners that expressed concern about the route and attended some Commission meetings expressing that concern. At that time an informational meeting was scheduled in George at the George Community Hall on 4/12/2023. The meeting was attended by 73 people along with PUD staff and the Commission to explain the logic of the selected line route and the pros and cons for all the line routes. Since then, there has been much speculation from some of the landowners on where poles will be placed. These landowners have not allowed the PUD a right of entry to mark a pole location to have a conversation with them about pole placements. We would encourage landowners who have refused a right of entry to allow one and have a productive conversation on what an easement is, how it affects them and how poles can be adjusted if necessary to accommodate them. 

The Commission wants to assure landowners what an easement is and is not. An easement allows the PUD permission to use a space of land in perpetuity where a pole is placed and the overhead swing of the wires for when wind moves lines back and forth as per set specifications by electrical codes. Those codes also have restrictions on building under or alongside so the lines do not get tangled up in other infrastructure that could be placed by or under the power lines such as a tall building or a cell tower. It does not restrict farming under the power lines or stacking hay with height restrictions and does not take ownership away from the landowner. It has been the Commission’s directive to PUD Staff to work diligently with landowners on pole placement so as to not interfere with the operation of irrigation equipment. Pole placement can be adjusted with adding poles to mitigate out a pole span width to allow for irrigation equipment to have ample clearance without modifications to the equipment. Unless a home is within the easement itself, the easement would not present a risk to the home or PUD infrastructure. By way of reminder, the easement is for arial concerns of the wires, the pole placement itself is minimally intrusive itself.   

The portion of the line route that is being disputed is predominately from Frenchman Hills Road north to where it intersects north of George, Wash., at the current 115 kVa line on Beverly Burke Road. On this section of the route, the poles will be moved in approximately five feet from where they currently set along Beverly Burke Road. The easement being asked for is approximately 50 feet from the landowner as the other half of the easement will be utilizing Beverly Burke Road totaling approximately 100 feet. Currently there will be pole replacement from State Highway 26 at the Jericho substation north on Beverly Burke Road to where it intersects with the 115 kVa line north of George. A total of 205 distribution poles will be removed and replaced with 296 new poles that include both transmission and distribution. Total land used for new pole placement in that section is approximately 3,720 feet or about .085 acres. Total easement acres for that corridor from Jericho to the 115 kVa line with some crossing through dryland is 86.5 acres, not 455 acres as stated. Most of the dryland areas have the right of entries or easements currently procured and the balance of that disputed section parallels Beverly Burke Road.   

The Commission has considered the routes diligently and the load growth that needs to be served. We have food processing, steel manufacturing and data centers that are requesting power. The county will continue to grow, and we are tasked with how to deal with the power delivery needs of that growth whether it is transmission or new resources. It is not the Commission’s desire to condemn any landowner’s property; we take that very seriously. Unfortunately, there are those occasions when we are not allowed to have a productive conversation with landowners about easements that force us to take such action. 

This week's commission meeting took place at the Hydro Office Building near Wanapum Dam.


Reminder!  Hearings for 2025 budget are Oct. 8

Grant PUD Commissioners will hold two public hearings for the 2025 budget on Tuesday, Oct 8, one at 2 p.m. and the other at 6 p.m. in the Commission Room of the Ephrata PUD Headquarters building at 30 C Street SW. Both have an option for the public to attend in person or remote.

The 2025 preliminary budget calls for $367.8 million in expenditures with a forecasted change in net position of $192.3 million.   This represents a $20.7 million increase in expenditures and a $73.6 million increase in the change of net position compared to the 2024 adopted budget. The additional budgeted expenditures in 2025 are necessary to address the rising costs associated with expanding services and infrastructure improvements.  The increased budgeted expenditures include $236.5 million in operations and maintenance and $253 million in capital.    

To learn more about the preliminary budget and for information on how to attend virtually, see https://www.grantpud.org/commission-meetings#publichearings.

Commissioners give nod to proposed rate strategy

Since January, Grant PUD customers have been able to talk with a live and local customer service representative on seven days a week (excluding holidays and training days) from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. The program has enabled customers to have greater access to help for their accounts and power service, said Cary West, Senior Manager of Customer Solutions during his department’s quarterly report for the PUD commissioners during their meeting on Sept. 10.

West said that there are two customer service reps on duty on Saturdays and Sundays from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. These reps have access to customer account information, can take payments, and can relay information about outages and other power concerns to utility staff on the weekends. On Mondays through Fridays during typical peak days of the week, more local customer service representatives are on duty to perform the same services from 6 to 6. 

“This enhances our customer experience,” West said about the weekend coverage. “It also adds bandwidth, alleviating workload pressure Mondays through Fridays.”

One of the greatest benefits are during large outages. Prior to having customer service reps answering calls, Grant PUD’s Power Dispatch Center would often be overwhelmed by call volumes. Now with the two reps on duty, they can take a high volume of calls during large outages, freeing up staff in the Power Dispatch Center to focus on restoring power safely and quickly. 

West added that his department is achieving its goal have having less than a five-minute hold time for at least 80% of calls to the call center. The average through June is 90%. One area needing improvement are for wait times exceeding 10 minutes. The goal is for fewer than 1% of calls to have a wait time of more than 10 minutes. Through the first six months of the year, the average is just over 4%. West said calls with longer wait times typically occur during major power outages or times when staffing levels dip during the day due to lunch coverages for the team. 

EPHRATA – Rich Wallen, Grant PUD general manager/chief executive officer, has announced his resignation from the utility. The resignation, which was given to Grant PUD’s Board of Commissioners on May 7, is effective on June 14. 

Wallen has been with Grant PUD for seven years and served the last two and a half as the utility’s general manager. 

“During his time as CEO, Rich oversaw profound changes at Grant PUD,” stated Grant PUD Commission President Tom Flint. “Under his leadership, we have become more efficient and fiscally sound. Rich led a strategic re-alignment of the utility which sets the stage for Grant PUD to meet the changes and challenges in the evolving electric utility industry. He has also been a tireless advocate for hydropower in the Northwest, serving as a spokesperson for the industry, plus a board member and trusted advisor with many hydropower advocacy organizations.

“I, and the rest of the commissioners, are incredibly grateful for the energy, vision, and heart that Rich dedicated to our organization for the benefit of our customers. We wish him the absolute best as he moves on to the next stage of his career.”

Wallen is leaving Grant PUD for employment with Chelan PUD as their Chief Operating Officer. 

Grant PUD customers can now stay up-to-date on major power and fiber-optic outages in their specific areas of Grant County by simply reading an alert on their cell phones or computers.

Major outage alerts by text message or email have already begun to Grant PUD customers via the Everbridge Emergency Alert System. This is the same emergency alert system used by Grant County Emergency Management and many law-enforcement agencies around the region.  

Grant County residents with mobile and landline numbers are already included in the Everbridge system. But anyone – even if you live outside Grant County – can opt in to receive alerts by filling out an online form here. Likewise, anyone who is already subscribed can opt out by following the instructions on any of the alerts received.

Grant PUD will use this alert service primarily for “major” outages affecting 100 or more customers and other, occasional, emergency service alerts. The same alerts and updates will continue to be posted on Grant PUD’s Facebook, X (formerly Twitter) and the grantpud.org/outages website.

Why stay in the loop?

On Jan. 23, Grant PUD Commissioners approved new electrical service rates for our customers. The new rates, which includes an overall 3% increase, with specific allocations for each customer group will begin on April 1, 2024. To learn more about the decision making behind the rate increase read our recap of the Jan. 23 commission meeting. Below you’ll find answers to general questions we have received about the rate increase during our public meetings and individual discussions with customers.

Why does Grant PUD need to raise rates?

Each year, we look at how our retail rates cover operating expenses to serve our retail customers. We have a goal each year of making sure that projected retail power sales revenue covers our budgeted retail operating expenses. This modest 3% overall rate increase will help us keep up with increasing costs while at the same time ensuring we meet our commission’s goal of small, predictable rate increases.

Why don’t all customer groups get the same rate increase?

Commissioners are presently working under a rate-making policy which establishes certain rate trajectories and targets that provide predictable increases for our customers. Because customers have different power needs and use electricity in a different way, the costs to serve each group of customers are not the same. By factoring in the estimated costs to serve our customers when making these rate adjustments, commissioners are helping to move prices closer to those targets for each of our retail classes. Our commissioners and our customers have had considerable discussion about this rate-setting methodology over the past year and are expected to engage in a public process this year to determine how costs will determine rates in the future.

An invigorated focus on preventive distribution-system maintenance appears to be yielding a much lower total outage time, systemwide, Managing Director of Power Delivery Ron Alexander, told commissioners, Tuesday.

Since total outage time peaked in June 2022 at more than 130 minutes, total outage time dropped below the 100-minute target in August 2022 and continued plummeting downward to less than 70 minutes in November 2022. It has remained well below target ever since. Likewise, average outage duration per Grant PUD customer is also well below the target of .75%, Alexander said.

Crews have been working to replace aged poles, and pole components blamed for pole fires. They’ve also worked on improving “power quality” by updating equipment to ensure voltage remains within acceptable parameters even on the longer distribution lines.

“The improvement I’ve seen over the last 2-3 years — how things have been realigned and repositioned — it’s just brought the bar up higher,” said Commissioner Larry Schaapman, referring to the entire Power Production team. “As a commissioner I couldn’t be more pleased and more proud about what you guys are doing.”

See the full presentation on pages 43-62 of the presentation materials. Hear the full discussion at 1:29:41 on the commission audio.

Commissioners also:

EPHRATA — In a measure to help Grant PUD withstand the impact of inflation, Grant PUD’s commissioners on Dec. 13 approved a plan for new electricity rates in 2023. The new rates take effect April 1.

This is the first power rate increase for Grant PUD customers since 2018. The overall increase of 3% will be allocated partly on Grant PUD’s cost to serve each rate group. The 3% increase and careful financial planning will help the utility withstand the 8.7% impact of inflation to its 2023 budget, which was approved by commissioners in November.

The new rates mean a typical residential customer using 1,700 kilowatt-hours in a month will pay an additional $3.24 a month. By comparison, a large industrial customer with an average monthly usage of 20 million-kilowatt hours would see an increase of $12,600 a month.

“No one likes rising costs,” stated commission President Judy Wilson after the meeting. “This increase is necessary for us to try to keep pace with inflation while at the same time continuing to provide our vital services to our growing county.”

Grant PUD’s proposed all-in Residential power rate of 5.8 cents per kilowatt hour is much lower than the average Washington residential rate of 10.19 cents per kilowatt-hour and the average United States rate of 14.88 cents per kilowatt-hour.

Commissioners also:

-- Heard from Tom Dresser, manager of Fish, Wildlife and Water Quality, that Grant PUD has secured a contract with Irrigation Technology and Control, Inc. of East Wenatchee to drill much-needed wells to increase the supply of water needed for fish and human use at the utility’s Carlton Acclimation Facility in Okanogan County near the community of Carlton. Search for a contractor began prior to the COVID pandemic.

Methow River has naturally migrated away from the facility’s water intake, Dresser has explained. This, coupled with severe cold snaps that can occur in the Methow Basin during February-March, has the potential to restrict water supply when summer chinook salmon are at the facility prior to their release into the river during April-May of each year.