PORT ANGELES — Customers of the Clallam County Public Utility District will pay more for electricity, water and sewer service next year.
District commissioners voted 3-0 Monday to approve 2015 electric, water and wastewater operating fund budgets that include a 3.5 percent electric rate hike beginning April 1.
Six percent increases for water and sewer rates will take effect Jan. 1.
Officials said the adjustments are needed to help offset Bonneville Power Administration’s 8 percent wholesale power increase from 2013 and regulatory and conservation mandates such as the Washington Energy Independence Act.
Clallam County PUD and other utilities in the region purchase the bulk of their power from the BPA.
“We’re kind of caught in the middle between Bonneville and our customers,” said Commissioner Ted Simpson after a resident complained about the rate hikes in a continued budget hearing Monday.
Simpson said the PUD has “not much choice” but to pass on wholesale rate increases to customers.
“We are sympathetic, believe me,” Simpson said.
“But we don’t really have any control over what Bonneville does to us when they charge those rates.”
The 3.5 percent electric rate increase is the second of two PUD rate hikes resulting from Bonneville’s 8 percent wholesale increase.
Thy PUD also raised its electric rates by 3.5 percent last July.
The electric rate increases were staggered in the wake of Bonneville’s decision to minimize the impact on customers, officials said.
For an average residential customer using 1,200 kilowatt-hours per month, the 3.5 percent electric rate increase in April will amount to about $3.35 per month.
Average water customers will pay about $2.50 more beginning Jan. 1, and average sewer bills will climb by about $2.40, PUD officials said.
BPA is expected to raise wholesale power rates another 6 percent to 9 percent next October, officials warned.
The electric, water and wastewater budgets — and associated rate hikes — were discussed in several PUD commission meetings in Port Angeles and in public forums in Sequim and Forks last week.
The water and sewer rate increases are largely the result of increased maintenance costs and infrastructure needs, officials said.
State voters approved the Energy Independence Act as the 2006 Initiative 937.
The law requires utilities the size of the Clallam County PUD to obtain 15 percent of their electricity from wind, solar, biomass, geothermal or other renewable sources by 2020.
“Unfortunately, it’s pretty expensive,” Simpson said.
The PUD pays about three times as much for renewable electricity as it pays for Bonneville hydropower.
Hydroelectricity is not considered renewable under the law.
“And hydro, everybody knows, it’s green,” Simpson said.
“But you can’t count it.”
The approved 2015 electric operating fund shows $69.7 million in revenue, $71.2 million in expenses and a $21.3 million ending cash reserve.
The water budget has $8.1 million revenue, $8.9 million in expenses and a $2.4 million ending reserve.
The sewer fund shows $47,458 in revenue, $51,611 in expenses and a $135,847 reserve.
For more information on the PUD, visit www.clallampud.net.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5072, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
