Bruce King has been ringing doorbells to introduce himself as the candidate who is challenging longtime Snohomish County PUD Commissioner Dave Aldrich in the Nov. 4 election.
Often, King said, he has had to explain what the PUD is and what its three commissioners do — that it has commissioners, even.
“The organization of the PUD is foreign to most people,” said King, 50, a former Microsoft employee. The PUD was largely foreign to him, too, until he bought a farm near Arlington and suffered 38 power outages in 14 months.
District 1 Commissioner Aldrich, 67, of Everett, who is seeking a third six-year term, concedes that King’s dairy and pig farm is in one of the areas least-reliably served by the PUD.
So this race pits a seasoned insider — Aldrich was a PUD commission policy analyst before he ran for office in 2002 — and an angry customer whose business can literally be spoiled by unreliable service.
In short, the incumbent is proud of the utility’s recent history of aggressively pursuing alternative sources of power, while the challenger thinks the PUD needs to get back to basics.
The Everett-based Snohomish County Public Utility District employs about 1,000 people and serves some 332,000 electric customers in Snohomish County and on Camano Island. The utility also serves 19,000 water customers.
Three elected nonpartisan commissioners serve six-year terms and meet twice per month. Commissioner Toni Olson’s term is up in 2016, and Commissioner Kathleen Vaughn’s term ends in 2018.
District 1, served by Aldrich, encompasses the northern half of the county, including Everett, Marysville, Arlington, Granite Falls, Darrington, Stanwood and Camano Island.
The federal Bonneville Power Administration supplies 85 percent of the PUD’s electricity. But the utility has three hydroelectric dams of its own and has been active in developing alternative energy sources, including solar and wind.
The PUD recently pulled the plug on a contested eight-year, grant-backed research project that would have placed two tidal turbines in the water off Whidbey Island. Federal money dried up.
And the agency this year modified a proposal for a small hydro project on a scenic stretch of the South Fork Skykomish River near Index. That project, too, has inspired vocal criticism.
The PUD’s electrical system budget is expected to be $762 million in 2015. A 1.9 percent general rate increase is proposed, along with another 2.2 percent increase to cover the higher cost of hydro energy purchased from BPA.
Such rate increases are inevitable, Aldrich said, if for no other reason than the cost of everything is rising. He thinks commissioners in the past have been too reluctant to steadily raise rates — necessitating sudden, big increases.
The PUD’s strategy today, Aldrich said, includes energy conservation, the continued purchase of power from BPA at favorable rates, and investment in new sources of power to match increasing demand — preferably, owning those sources outright.
“We have a terrific opportunity to take advantage of natural resources here in the county with mountains, gravity, rain, snow and a body of water to the west of us,” Aldrich said. Hence, the PUD-developed dams and the study of Puget Sound tidal turbines.
As for reliability, Aldrich said, the utility could do better.
After the power outages at his farm, King said, “I called the PUD and asked why it sucked so much. I didn’t get a response.” A couple of days later, he saw a newspaper article that mentioned that Aldrich was up for re-election to the commission.
“I thought I could complain about the situation, or I could step up and do something about it,” King said.
He has never attended a commission meeting, but King did research and talked to other electricity customers and came to the conclusion that the PUD has been distracted by innovation and “speculative” alternative-energy projects — that it needs to refocus on a core mission of providing reliable service at the best price.
“It should be run for the benefit of the ratepayers,” King said. “I’d like to see them stick to the knitting.”
King claims the PUD has the highest rates of any public electricity provider in the state and that those rates will rise further if the utility continues on the present path.
Aldrich said comparing rates with other PUDs isn’t easy if you factor in proximity to dams and system complexity — that on balance the cost of electricity in Snohomish County compares favorably to what other urban customers in the state pay.
King said ratepayers are ready for a change.
“I think that Mr. Aldrich, as much as he’s been a gadfly in the past, has been captured by the utility,” King said.
Responds Aldrich: “Anyone who’s attended board meetings would know it’s quite the opposite. I’m the one that’s pushing the utility. That’s why I’m called ‘the pusher’” inside the PUD.
Chuck Taylor: ctaylor@heraldnet.com; 425-339-3429; Twitter: @chcktylr
PUD candidates
Name: Dave Aldrich
Age: 67
Vocation: PUD commissioner
Website: snopudcampaign.org
Name: Bruce King
Age: 50
Vocation: Farmer, businessman
Website: brucekingpud.com
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