PORT TOWNSEND — There will be no ceremonial throwing of a switch when electrical power service in East Jefferson County transfers from Puget Sound Energy to the Jefferson County Public Utility District at 12:01 a.m. Monday.
If all goes according to plan, the 19,000 customers won’t notice the difference.
“We’re ready to go,” said PUD board President Barney Burke this week.
“I’m feeling good about this.
“We’ve done a lot of work in the last four years.”
In 2008, voters granted the public agency — which already provided water and sewer service — the authority to offer electrical service to East Jefferson County residents.
The vote severed a relationship with PSE that spanned about 100 years.
Burke expects the changeover won’t be discernible to the average user, nor will the customer experience change.
He said he hopes that service will improve because of the much smaller customer base — a fraction of the 1.1 million electrical customers in 11 counties that the Bellevue-based PSE has served.
Burke also hopes that the local point of contact will offer more thorough information than is currently available during a disaster.
“When there is an outage, people can call 360-385-5800 anytime for information,” he said.
“And anyone who has a question or a problem can call me directly — I’m in the book — although I won’t be able to help with technical issues.”
There will be no rate increase in the foreseeable future, and it will be at least a year before the idea is even discussed, Burke said.
The same metering equipment will be used that is in use now, and the same company that is reading the meters will continue to do so.
There will be differences as to where bills are mailed or paid online, if that is the preferred customer option.
Another change will be the handling of discounts for senior citizens and the disabled.
Burke said PSE was able to charge different rates for different customers and make direct contributions to Olympic Community Action Programs for seniors’ benefit, while the PUD will eliminate the $7.49 base charge for qualified customers and charge them only for what they use.
PSE’s office at 181 Quincy St. will close.
The PUD hopes to install several drop boxes for bills throughout its service area, Burke said.
He said everything is in place for the transition.
On Wednesday, the PUD received $114,743,000 of a $115.7 million loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture that will be handled by the Jefferson County treasurer.
The papers for the transfer of assets are expected to be signed today in a process that Burke compares to closing on a house.
The unceremonious switchover also is similar to changing the residential billing on a utility, since nothing will change except for the paperwork, according to PUD manager Jim Parker.
“PSE’s electricity comes from wind farms and other sources, while BPA’s power comes from dams, but they all feed into the system that we draw from,” Parker said.
The base price of the PSE infrastructure was $103 million. That will be adjusted to cover improvements that PSE has done over the past three years, Burke said, an amount estimated to be about another $5 million.
The transferred assets include 19,000 residential and meters, eight substations, 26.4 miles of 115 kilovolt transmission lines, 380 miles of overhead line, 353 miles of underground distribution lines and the operations building and yard at 310 Four Corners Road.
The transition agreement also includes PSE’s availability during any potential crisis, with a crew staying on hand for three days after the transfer.
“They will be there if we need them,” Burke said.
“If a truck crashes into a tree at 11:45 p.m. Sunday and causes a power outage, they will be there to help us; they won’t just punch out at midnight.”
Burke said the PUD crew, which consists of six people, already is assembled.
Burke, who calls himself a “night owl,” said he expects he will be awake during the transition time but has no special plans.
Parker said he will be sleeping.
“I’ve worked pretty hard over the last few months,” he said.
“I don’t think I’ll be staying up for this.”
Jefferson County Editor Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
