Not all of the North Olympic Peninsula’s electrical utilities have figured out what recently confirmed Bonneville Power Administration power rate increases will mean for individual customers, though each has said they saw the rate hike coming long in advance.
Bonneville Power Administration, or BPA, officials confirmed last week a
9 percent average wholesale power rate increase and an 11 percent average transmission rate increase for its 70 city and public utility customers.
The BPA’s customers include the city of Port Angeles, the Jefferson County Public Utility District and the Clallam County PUD.
The new rates take effect Oct. 1. The BPA says they are necessary to maintain and upgrade the agency’s hydropower and transmission systems.
The 9 percent and 11 percent increases are averages across BPA’s entire system, meaning actual increases for specific utilities will likely differ.
“This rate increase did not come as a surprise to any utilities anywhere,” said Michael Howe, spokesman for the Clallam County Public Utility District.
“It’s been a part of our long-term projections for a while.”
Howe said Friday that the Clallam PUD increased electric rates for its customers, effective July 1, by 3 percent to help account for the coming BPA increase.
For an average Clallam PUD customer using about 1,400 kilowatt hours per month, this means paying $3.40 more per month, Howe said.
“We anticipate small increases of about 3 percent per year,” Howe said.
“This is what we’re looking at, [and] that’s what shows up on our five-year projections.”
The Clallam County PUD serves about 30,000 residential and commercial customers in Sequim, Forks and unincorporated Clallam County.
Phil Lusk, Port Angeles deputy director of power and telecommunication systems, said he’s still in the process of feeding the new BPA rates into software used to help develop city utility customer rates.
“We’re still trying to assess what the individual impact on the city is going to be, and how that is ultimately going to impact individual customers,” Lusk said.
Lusk said city staff hope to have information on impacts to specific city ratepayers ready for City Council and public review by early fall, when at least two public hearings will be held before any rate adjustments are voted on by council members.
“That will ultimately be council’s decision,” Lusk said, regarding any electric rate increases.
The BPA rate increases have been factored into the city’s ongoing cost of service study for all the city’s utilities, Lusk added.
If the 9 and 11 percent rate increases hold true for the city, Lusk said this would translate to a roughly 9.3 percent increase in an average city ratepayer’s bill, which now sits between $100 and $105 per month.
Any city electric rate increases would likely affect all the city’s roughly 10,300 electric connections, including residential, commercial and industrial customers, Lusk added.
Jim Parker, manager of the Jefferson County Public Utility District, said PUD staff members took BPA rate increases into account when developing the financial estimates for taking over Puget Sound’s Energy’s Jefferson County infrastructure and service on April 1.
“We didn’t want to see it happen,” Parker said, referring to the rate increase.
“But until we have a formal rate study at some point, it’s not going to make an immediate change [to PUD electric rates].”
Parker said a rate study for the PUD, which serves about 18,000 customers in Port Townsend and unincorporated Jefferson County, will likely be conducted after the PUD has been fully operational for between six months and a year.
Reporter Jeremy Schwartz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jschwartz@peninsuladailynews.com.
