Utility business is not immune to supply chain issues

Supply chain issues are in the news a lot lately. From lumber to microchips, supplies have been delayed over the past few months for a variety of reasons, including manufacturing issues, labor shortages, and shipping and transportation problems.

Unfortunately, the utility business is not immune to these supply chain issues. Over the past few months, the PUD has dealt with supply issues around transformers, computer equipment and, now, even commercial billing envelopes.

Thankfully, the PUD has been able to mitigate these issues through proactive planning and creative thinking. In September, the PUD’s Board of Commissioners approved a declaration of emergency allowing the PUD to bypass the bidding process, when needed, to secure needed products in a timely fashion. This was especially critical during this past storm season. The PUD was able to use parallel supply chains, approved vendors and second-closest bidders to secure enough transformers to meet needs.

Currently, the nationwide paper shortage is affecting the PUD’s envelope stock and has forced us to get creative to ensure we can continue to mail out paper bills. We wish there was an easy fix. Ideally, we could just go buy some envelopes from our local office supply shop. But the type of envelopes we require and the amount makes that impossible, leaving us with very limited options.

We do hope this will encourage customers to go paperless. Not only will this help us during this envelop shortage, but going paperless can save paper and money. Currently 140,000 PUD customers are already signed up for paperless billing! We want to encourage those who still do receive a paper bill to go paperless and check out our online payment system and customer portal MySnoPUD to discover the great benefits of accessing their account online.

Here are some of the many benefits of having a MySnoPUD account:

• Access your billing statements anytime, anywhere and receive it sooner. You can view your bill information on MySnoPUD as soon as it becomes available and check out up to four years of past billing statements.

• Use the recurring payment option to set your payment on the due date and automatically have it removed from your bank account or charged to your credit card. Or use the one-time payment method to set up payment in advance each month.

• Never miss your bill. Receive email notifications letting you know your bill is due, paid and your total energy usage. Rather get notifications on your phone? Sign-up for text notifications so that you never miss a bill and get due date reminders.

• Protect your info and save money. Prevent identify theft by keeping your bill out of the hands of mail thieves and save money on postage by paying your bill online.

If you haven’t created a MySnoPUD account, visit www.snopud.com and select “SIGN IN” and click on “Create a Profile” at the bottom of the pop-up box. Call 425-783-1000 if you have questions about MySnoPUD or paperless billing.