Grant PUD Commissioners discussed proposed changes during their meeting on May 13 to Grant PUD’s application process for customers requesting loads of 500 kilowatts or higher.
The application changes, including higher upfront fees, will address the more than 2,000 megawatts of service requests made to Washington State-based Grant PUD over the past seven years by industrial customers. These requests, which have come in with a relatively low application fee, are presently in a first-come, first-serve “queue.”
Andy Wendell, Senior Manager of Large Power Solutions, said updating the application process and adopting a higher up-front fee schedule will help to “cleanse the queue” of speculative requests for service. Requiring customers to make a fee payment that would cover about 30% of the total service-connection costs will help validate customers with serious intent of location in Grant County, Wendell said.
The application payment will also provide financial resources needed for Grant PUD to study and design the system connection. The remaining service-connection costs would be paid by the customer once the new service design is finished and a facilities agreement between Grant PUD and the customer is approved.
Then Grant PUD would begin constructing the grid components needed for the new connection.
Under the new fee schedule, customers needing 40 megawatts would pay $4 million upfront. Those same customers are presently charged $52,000 for an application fee. Depending on their specific requests for power, up to 92.5% of the application fee can be refunded to the customer, minus Grant PUD’s direct purchases, Wendell stated.
Customers with an approved facilities agreement with Grant PUD would not need to pay the new fees. Those in the queue without a facilities agreement will have those funds credited toward their new fees if they choose to remain in the queue, Wendell said.
Commissioner Larry Schaapman said he wanted some assurance that Grant PUD staff would work to streamline its study and design process.
“If we’re going to make this demand for these dollars, we better perform to a certain level because there’s an expectation for that kind of money,” Schaapman said.
Wendell said reducing the speculative requests in the queue will be a key starting point to increase staff efficiency.
“I look at it a little like crawl, walk, run,” Wendell said. “We’re crawling as we clean up the queue. … We have to start at our application queue. We have to provide certainty around that.”
Grant PUD General Manager John Mertlich added that for most of the United States, it takes at least five years for large loads to get hooked up to power.
“It’s everywhere in the county,” Mertlich said. “We’re not much different than anywhere else.”
A five-year time frame is standard for study, design and construction to connect customers to power service, he said.
The commission is scheduled to hold a vote on the application changes during its meeting on May 27.
