PORT TOWNSEND — On Friday, the Jefferson County Public Utility District will celebrate power to the people.
The Jefferson County Public Utility District (PUD) has provided electrical power to residents of the county since the first week of April 2013, five years after a public vote in 2008 that authorized the PUD to acquire the power grid from Puget Sound Energy (PSE).
To mark the occasion, Commissioners Jeff Randall, Kenneth Collins and Wayne King will serve as hosts and grillmasters for a five-year community party and barbecue at the 310 Four Corners Road customer service and operations center from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday. Hot dogs and veggie sausages are on the menu.
Newly hired General Manager Larry Dunbar will be in attendance to meet staff and customers.
His first official day on the job will be April 23.
Jefferson County PUD was the first state public utility to acquire electrical service from a private entity in almost 60 years. The last was Snohomish County PUD which acquired a portion of PSE ancestor Puget Sound Power and Light’s power grid in 1949.
In 2010, the PUD and PSE settled on a purchase price of $103 million. To pay for the purchase, the PUD received funding from the USDA’s Rural Utility Service program, borrowing $115 million to cover capital improvements and start-up costs.
Jefferson County PUD Resource Manager Bill Graham noted that at the time, interest rates were at an all-time low nationally and the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) had the capacity to take on a new customer which is something they don’t do often.
Collins said that BPA power is clean power.
“I’m not sure everyone realizes this, but the BPA supplies us with 98 percent carbon-free electricity, primarily hydropower,” Collins said. “PSE, even today, according to the reports they file with the utility commission, uses up to 60 percent fossil fuels to generate power, 37 percent of which is coal.”
King remembers that in 2012, Jefferson County PUD was a water and sewer district with eight employees and a $2 million budget.
“Nobody had any experience in the electrical business,” he said.
Jeff Randall, president and District 1 commissioner, said that the PUD delivers better service than PSE. He said the PUD is keeping the electrical rates very close to PSE rates.
“The vision of our local electrical utility is to keep the money in the community with good-paying jobs, instead of exporting dollars,” Randall said.
“If you build a new house or a business, our goal is to provide quick service to hook up and deliver more reliable power. Before, we were a long way away from the people who restored power when there was an outage,” Randall said.
”We are much more responsive now. We do more maintenance, and do local utility tree cutting.
“We’re growing our utility,” he continued. “We now provide water, sewer and broadband. Consider us a community partner in the growth and development of Jefferson County.”
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Jefferson County Editor/Reporter Jeannie McMacken can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jmcmacken@peninsuladailynews.com.
