EPHRATA — The Grant County PUD finished 2017 in the black, but there are some trends that PUD officials want to work on in 2018.

Baxter Gillette, of the PUD's accounting department, presented the year end report with charts that highlighted good trends in green and not-so-good trends in red. “The good news is, it’s mostly green here,” Gillette commented. The utility ended 2017 with about $157.031 million in its electrical system, which was above the long-term target, but below the target set in the 2017 budget. Utility district commissioners approved reallocating $7 million for the fiber optic system buildout in 2018, and that’s reflected in the 2017 year-end, Gillette said.

The PUD finished the year with enough cash on hand to last an estimated 621 days. Commissioner Bob Bernd said he didn’t understand why the “cash on hand” measure is included in the budget reports. “As long as I’ve been doing this, that’s kind of almost irrelevant,” Bernd said. “And I think it leads, in my opinion, to a misunderstanding” among some customers, who have told him they think that’s a lot of money in reserve. “Why is it even still there?” Bernd asked.

Gillette said there are a couple of reasons, one of them being the PUD has been borrowing money to finish a multi-decade project to upgrade the turbines and generators at Priest Rapids and Wanapum dams. There is an entire industry that evaluates companies looking to sell bonds to raise money and the better the evaluation from those rating agencies, the better the PUD’s interest rate, Gillette said.

In addition, the year-end cash balance was higher because substantial payments were due January 1, Gillette explained. “The January 3 picture looks a lot different,” said chief executive officer Kevin Nordt.

Retail energy sales actually were below the budget targets, and so were contracted sales to purchasers at cost. But wholesale and other revenues were above budget, Gillette said. Some customers are required to build facilities as part of getting service, and the revenues associated with that program also were over the budget targets.

Capital expenses actually were under budget for the year, but Gillette said that was the result of delaying some planned projects. That wasn’t as good as might sound, he said, because it meant the PUD had borrowed the money for the project but wasn’t getting the benefit of it yet.

The utility is moving toward a more comprehensive accounting system, Gillette said, where managers will asked to provide more detailed information about how money is allocated when it’s spent.

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at education@columbiabasinherald.com.