The Snohomish County PUD adopted a new budget for 2005 that doesn’t lower rates, but doesn’t raise them either.
“There is no rate increase because we have been able to keep our cost very low,” said Cynthia First, president of the PUD commission.
The PUD’s 295,000 customers have struggled to pay rates that have been among the highest in the state since 2001, when they were increased by about 50 percent during the height of the 2000-01 West Coast energy crisis.
The PUD has since had to turn off the electricity at homes of customers who hadn’t paid their bills. It’s on pace to set a new disconnection record this year.
“We’re very sensitive to our ratepayers inability to pay their bills,” First said Nov. 23. “We’re hopeful that at some point we may be able to lower rates.”
Until then, the utility is committed to keeping nonelectricity costs down, a key reason why the utility has been able to avoid raising rates again, she said.
Operations and maintenance costs — all expenses not related to buying electricity — have not gone up at the utility since 1998.
When the 2005 budget was first presented in August, the PUD was about $5 million short of making ends meet, said Glenn McPherson, the PUD’s assistant general manager of finance.
The PUD has since made up for that amount by not spending as much as expected this year and by making more money than expected selling surplus electricity.
“We think the (carryover amount) is going to be more than $5 million, but it’s just too difficult to tell for sure,” McPherson said.
The reason the budget grew by 1 percent over last year is because the utility plans to pour extra cash into trimming trees near lines, replacing deteriorating power poles and replacing underground cable.
The utility has been delaying doing the work to help the utility avoid raising rates.
Lukas Velush is a reporter with The Herald in Everett.
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