EPHRATA — Grant County Public Utility District commissioners have approved a new resolution on rate setting policy, which Commissioner Larry Schaapman said was a temporary fix while commissioners revisit the way rates are established.

Commissioners approved Resolution 9039 during the regular meeting Tuesday. Commissioner Tom Flint voted no. Flint said Tuesday he opposes the method used to set rates, and always has. 

Resolution 9039 replaces Resolution 8768, which was passed in 2015. 

“All this is doing is clarifying,” Schaapman said. 

Resolution 8768 set some targets for rate classes and said those targets would be met by the end of 2023. 

“We’re not going to make the target date of Dec. 31, 2023,” said PUD Chief Executive Officer Rich Wallen. “Mathematically we could not get within those (targets) the way the resolution is currently written.” 

Wallen said the new resolution allows time to talk about how the commissioners want to address rates beyond 2024.

“It gives you another target date of (December) 2024 to do something with that or do something differently, which is going to be part of those discussions that we bring back (to commissioners),” Wallen said. 

The new resolution sets the same targets as 8768. The targets, the way rates are established and rates have been subjects of discussion over the summer and fall. 

Utility district rates are set using guidelines that start with an analysis of what it costs to provide service to each rate class such as commercial, industrial, farm and residential customers. From there, some classes are charged less than the cost of providing service to them, while others are charged more than the cost of service. Irrigators and residential customers are charged less than the cost of service, while large industrial customers are charged more. 

The targets originally established said that classes paying less than their cost of service should pay at least 80% of the cost, while customer classes that pay more should pay a maximum of 15% more than their cost.

The resolution gives priority to residential, large commercial, small commercial and irrigation customers to get most of the benefits from the fact the PUD generates its own power, and therefore provides it at a lower cost. 

Commissioners will discuss the actual rates for 2024 at the next commission meeting, set for Jan. 9. Utility district staff detailed three options for 2024 rates at the Nov. 21 meeting. One was a 3% across-the-board rate increase. The difference between the second and third options was that some rate classes would have different increases, depending on the option chosen. 

Cheryl Schweizer may be reached at cschweizer@columbiabasinherald.com.