Snohomish County PUD: Partnering with the community to provide power

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, May 6, 2026

Opportunity Lives Here Award — Recognizes an organization which brings innovation and creates opportunities locally and regionally.

For the Snohomish County Public Utility District, it’s about more than keeping the lights on.

From seamless power transitions to powering electric transportation models, Snohomish County PUD is looking to the future when it comes to energy innovations in the county.

As a result, the municipal corporation, which powers 380,000 homes and businesses, received the Opportunity Lives Here Award on April 14 at the Economic Alliance Snohomish County’s annual meeting.

Snohomish County PUD is always working to make its power portfolio cleaner, said John Haarlow, Snohomish County PUD’s CEO/general manager, in an email.

“On average, we provide about 90% clean energy to our customers,” he said. “With most of that coming from clean and renewable hydropower.”

In Everett, clean energy could be as easy as getting off the bus.

Snohomish County PUD is working with Everett Transit to deploy induction charging technology, which would charge buses when driving or parking over charging stations.

In the 10 to 15 minutes a bus is at a stop, it’s “actually charging while it’s letting passengers off, bringing passengers on,” Haarlow told The Daily Herald in April.

The corporation is also partnering with Community Transit as it implements an electric bus fleet.

“We are partnering with them on the ability for them to be able to charge those buses,” he said.

“The hope is that you’ll be pulling fossil fuel cars off the road,” Haarlow said. “That’s a huge impact on climate change and our commitment to a cleaner environment.”

Recently, Snohomish County PUD has received attention for its work with microgrid technology, Haarlow said.

The Arlington Microgrid project includes a 500-kW solar array, 1,000-kW battery storage system, vehicle-to-grid charging stations, a clean energy center and a solar tree, according to Snohomish County PUD’s website. A microgrid, which offers an emergency backup system, is composed of locally grouped electricity sources that can feed the main grid or be disconnected to serve a specific location.

In a partnership with Hitachi Energy, Snohomish County PUD developed seamless-relaying technology, allowing the microgrid, battery or charging station to be connected and disconnected without “a blink of the lights,” Haarlow said.

During a storm, individuals may notice their lights going out before flickering back on, but “this technology, you would never see that,” he said.

“If there’s an outage or we need to transfer how we’re feeding the system, we can do that with that technology seamlessly,” he said. “You don’t have to reset your clocks. It doesn’t impact your computer and your cell phone charging.”

Snohomish County PUD has played a critical role in supporting the quality of life of Snohomish County residents and businesses, a nominator wrote.

“Snohomish PUD delivers reliable, affordable power while leading investments in clean energy, grid modernization, and energy innovation that strengthen the county’s economic competitiveness,” the nominator wrote.

Jenna Millikan: 425-339-3035; jenna.millikan@heraldnet.com; X: @JennaMillikan