PUD candidates talk about rates, data centers and renewable energy
Published 1:30 pm Wednesday, July 1, 2026
EVERETT — Keeping rates low, protecting grid reliability and increasing public involvement are among the top priorities for incumbent Sid Logan and his two challengers, Janet St. Clair and Bruce King. Two will earn a spot on the Nov. 3 general election ballot for the District 1 seat on the Snohomish County Public Utility District’s board of commissioners.
Three nonpartisan commissioners oversee the Snohomish County PUD, the second-largest publicly owned utility in the Pacific Northwest. The commission sets utility rates, directs policy and hires a general manager.
The PUD serves more than 385,000 electric customers in Snohomish County and on Camano Island. It was also provides water, purchased from the city of Everett, to an average of more than 23,000 customers. Hydropower accounts for around 80% of the county’s power supply, mostly from the Bonneville Power Administration.
District 1 covers the northern half of the county, including Everett, Marysville, Arlington, Granite Falls, Stanwood and Darrington, and Camano Island in Island County.
Commissioners make $38,856 annually.
The county will mail ballots out July 14. The two with the most votes will advance to the Nov. 3 general election.
Bruce King
King, 62, is a rancher who first ran for PUD commissioner in 2014 after the power on his farm went out 38 times in one year. Since then, he has run two more times.
“I don’t think the PUD, this PUD board, allows the public to have the input that they would appreciate,” he said.
King has also worked in the technology field, including spending 10 years as a software engineer at Microsoft.
His priorities include increased public involvement, more support for community facilities and ensuring the power the PUD allocates is sustainable over the long term.
As far as bringing in more public input, King proposed that the PUD hold working sessions where they discuss new programs and initiatives that are posted online for customers to see.
“Not everybody can get down to the PUD building and sit in the room for the presentation,” he said. “I think that in these days of internet, all of that stuff should be available.”
The PUD posts the commissioner meetings’ agendas and recordings on its website alongside a Zoom link to upcoming meetings.
King would also like to see the PUD encourage internet providers to bring fiber internet to more rural areas in the county.
In some rural areas, fiber internet is becoming a reality. In 2024, Ziply Fiber partnered with Snohomish County and the Washington State Broadband Office to bring fiber internet to communities along the Highway 530 corridor between Arlington and Darrington.
Having fiber internet allows residents to function better than communities that don’t, especially in situations such as the COVID-19 pandemic, where working from home was necessary, King said.
“We have a situation of have and have-nots,” he said.
Costs are another concern for King, who questioned why electric rates in Snohomish County, set at around 10 cents per kilowatt-hour for residents, were higher than those in Grant County, set at around six cents per kilowatt-hour for residents, despite both buying bulk power from Bonneville Power Administration.
As far as potential data centers, King is concerned with keeping rates low, mitigating harm and ensuring the PUD does not overcommit “because what happens when we overcommit is that it’s a pretty fast track straight to fossil fuels.”
Data centers have become a hot-button topic for residents. There are no data centers intended to power artificial intelligence in the county currently, but the PUD has begun to prepare itself for the possibility of these large load centers.
On June 24, the Snohomish County Council unanimously approved an emergency moratorium on data centers, which paused any new data center development for 6 months in unincorporated parts of the county as the council crafts a permanent policy.
As of Tuesday, King has not added his campaign contributions to state filings.
Sid Logan
Logan, 63, was appointed to the post in March 2017 before being elected for a subsequent two-year term. In 2020, he was re-elected for his first six-year term.
Before he was the District 1 commissioner, Logan was the executive director of operations for the Arlington School District. He previously worked in the oil and gas industry as an engineer and consultant.
His priorities include seeing the completion of smart meter deployment, polishing the FlexTime program and ensuring that customers’ power is low-cost.
The digital, or smart, meters replace residents’ old electromechanical meters through the PUD’s ConnectUp program. The digital meters are reportedly more accurate and feature wireless connection capabilities, which update Snohomish PUD every 15 minutes on energy consumption. Recently, the new meters have received some complaints citing privacy concerns and difficulty opting out of the switch.
The FlexTime pilot program rewards participants for using energy outside of peak demand hours. By using their appliances at night or on weekends, customers can lower their bills.
“We have tools where people can look at their own consumption and make educated decisions about whether that’s going to be a good thing for them,” he said. “I want those to be win-wins.”
To keep rates low, Logan said he plans to hone PUD’s large load policy to protect access to low-cost hydropower and develop a plan to deliver cost-effective power for when the PUD reaches its Rate Period High Water Mark with the Bonneville Power Administration.
Overall, his focus has remained the same, Logan said.
“Make sure that our water and our power are reliable and safe, and that we provide them at the lowest cost we can,” he said.
The Rate Period High Water Mark sets the maximum planned power amount a customer can purchase. While not at that level yet, Logan said at some point the PUD will get to a level where its power is not covered at the lower electric rates.
Another way to keep costs low is to keep large load costs from being transferred to existing customers, including data centers.
“If we have large loads going out and setting up contracts at market prices, they would have to pay for that kind of power,” Logan said.
As of Tuesday, Logan raised $4,381 in campaign contributions, according to state filings.
Janet St. Clair
St. Clair, 66, spent the last eight years as an Island County commissioner. Previously, she also worked as a teacher and social worker.
Her top priority is protecting ratepayers by managing energy conservation and efficiency to keep bills low and protect grid reliability for the next 20 years. But St. Clair is also coming to this race with questions, such as why does so much of PUD’s energy come from the Bonneville Power Administration?
“It’s not that I necessarily want to revisit that decision, but I want to understand it,” she said. “How do we do a ‘yes and’ and how do we further develop access to energy resources that are more locally controlled?”
Local control of Snohomish PUD issues and protecting access to affordable water are also among St. Clair’s priorities. Part of that includes continuing to explore other renewable power options, such as solar and wind, and their impacts, she said.
As far as the potential for data centers and other large load consumers, St. Clair said it’s important for the PUD to manage potential large consumers to ensure residents and small businesses don’t foot the bill.
“That is going to be a challenging conversation because that’s one of the costs of innovation,” she said.
Pacing innovations is critical as the PUD future-proofs its investments, she said. To pace those innovations, St. Clair wants to take time to assess risks and benefits going forward while looking at all the options.
“This is core infrastructure that we can manage well if we’re future-thinking as well as present-day thinking about what to do,” she said.
As of Tuesday, St. Clair has not added her campaign contributions to state filings.
Jenna Millikan: 425-339-3035; jenna.millikan@heraldnet.com; X: @JennaMillikan
