EPHRATA — Grant County Public Utility District customers are being invited to attend a workshop on future electrical rates and rate-setting policy at 1 p.m. Tuesday at the PUD main office in Ephrata, 30 C St. SW.  

Rate policy is scheduled to be on the agenda at the Aug. 27 and Sept. 10 commission meetings, with the goal of preparing a draft policy by late September. Commissioners would review the proposed revisions in November and vote on them before the end of the year. 

Rate policy is governed by a resolution originally approved in 2015, which set goals for rate structure by the end of 2023. Those goals weren’t met. In addition, electrical usage in Grant County has grown substantially, to the point that it’s anticipated that the PUD will use all its allocation of electricity from Priest Rapids and Wanapum dams by 2026 and will have to supplement that with other sources of electricity in the future.  

Power from the two dams, called the Priest Rapids Project, is cheaper because the PUD owns and operates them. Existing rate policy gives the benefit from that cheaper power to what are called core customers, which include residential, small businesses and agriculture. Commissioners have said that part of the policy won’t change. 

The existing rate structure factors in the cost of providing electrical service to different rate classes. Julio Aguirre, manager of rates and pricing, said at the Aug. 13 commission meeting that one of the ideas under consideration would revise that and create what he called a “special mechanism” as part of the rate-setting process.  

“The general concept is, we would like to break down the power costs (into) two big components,” Aguirre said. “One would be a base component, which would be used to allocate and recover (the cost of generation from the two dams) from all of our retail customers.” 

Core customers would get first rights to the electricity generated by Priest Rapids and Wanapum dams, Aguirre said. The second part would be a charge for any additional power beyond that from the two dams. Only non-core customers would pay that, he said. That category also would include any costs associated with electrical generation, such as environmental mandates.  

That wouldn’t necessarily mean the bill for a non-core customer would increase. With the new rate structure, some costs might go up, while others might go down. Aguirre showed an example for a large industrial class customer (Class 15) where the bill remained the same with either method of calculating it. 

However, the example did not include the possible “incremental power supply charge,” the charge for the cost of any additional power supply. Aguirre said that would be calculated annually.  

“We’re also thinking about changing the way we’re allocating the costs to our retail classes,” Aguirre said.  

The proposed policy includes additional options to establish rates, including contracts with specific customers rather than a general rate class. The PUD also could add charges, called “rate riders,” to pay for specific costs. A rate specific to new and still-untried industries would be one example; the PUD already has that, a rate schedule for what are called emerging industries.  

“Currently we do not have a specific rate proposal that we could call alternative,” Aguirre said. Options are still under discussion. 

Aguirre said the proposal would increase transparency for customers and provide more detail in how their power costs are calculated. 

Commissioner Larry Schaapman asked how the proposal provided customers some certainty from year to year.  

Ty Ehrman, PUD chief customer officer, said that’s still being determined since utility district employees are looking at options for additional power after the power from the two dams is all allocated. The combination of a new rate policy and choosing options for additional power will help answer that question, Ehrman said.