Snohomish PUD to raise rates for commercial customers

Published 5:16 pm Friday, September 11, 2009

EVERETT — Snohomish County PUD’s business customers can expect higher energy bills beginning Oct. 1.

The PUD’s commissioners decided Tuesday to pass a rate hike onto its commercial customers, a move they say can’t be avoided after the PUD’s main supplier, Bonneville Power Administration, jacked up the cost of wholesale energy.

Commercial and industrial customers should expect a 2.6 percent boost in their bills, while large industrial companies will pay 2 percent more.

For instance, the hike will cost the Everett School District an estimated $40,000 more a year, spokeswoman Mary Waggoner said. District officials are hoping reductions in price at Puget Sound Energy will offset some of the losses.

If not, the district would have to find a way to shave costs in a year when the budget is particularly tight.

“We have built some capacity in this year’s budget for such things as a price increase or a colder than usual winter,” she said. “But not $40,000 worth.”

The PUD serves 30,000 commercial and industrial businesses in Snohomish County and Camano Island. It purchases about 87 percent of its power from Bonneville, a government agency that markets and sells electricity from federal dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers.

The majority of the PUD’s budget is devoted to purchasing power from BPA, not running the utility, said general manager Steve Klein. The utility has no control over how much BPA charges. Bonneville told the PUD they had decided to bump their rates to pay for restoring salmon habitat, he said.

The PUD hasn’t always passed on higher BPA costs to consumers but that came at the expense of critical investments, such as electrical systems, spokesman Neil Neroutsos said.

“We are concerned about industrial and commercial customers,” said Kathleen Vaughn, president of the commission. “We will look forward to working with BPA so we don’t have another increase in the next couple of years.”

Residential customers will actually see an infinitesimal dip in their bills of one-tenth of 1 percent or about 18 cents a month for an average home. Residential rate actually went up, too, but the PUD found a credit offered by Bonneville it could apply to offset that rate hike. Commercial and industrial businesses weren’t eligible for the credit.

Debra Smith: 425-339-3197, dsmith@heraldnet.com.