PORT TOWNSEND — Jefferson County Public Utility District commissioners will see on Monday the final draft of a feasibility study that encourages the district to seriously — but cautiously — pursue providing electrical service.
The potential buyout of Puget Sound Energy by a consortium of international investors has public utility districts, or PUDs, in Jefferson, Skagit, Island and Whatcom County positioning themselves to take over PSE’s assets in those counties.
Jefferson County voters will decide Nov. 4 whether to have their PUD go after PSE’s assets — its East Jefferson County system from Mount Walker north to Port Townsend — and electrical customers in Port Townsend and other portions of the county.
The Jefferson County PUD now provides only water and sewer service.
“It still will provide a lot of financial benefits to the people of Jefferson County,” said Bob Schneider, president of D. Hittle & Associates, which was contracted by the PUD to do the study for up to $30,000.
“If voters give approval, the PUD really needs to negotiate harder with Puget Sound Energy and figure out what they want to do.”
It is the second such Hittle study of PUD providing power service. The last one, conducted in 2000, also supports PUD power service.
Although he declined to be specific before the official release on Monday, Schneider said his estimated value of PSE’s system in Jefferson County would be close to the state Department of Revenue’s estimate of more than $30 million.
That contradicts PSE, which through its consultant UtiliPoint International Inc., pegged the system’s value at $77 million or more in a report released in late July.
