The following is a transcript of the Sept. 22, 2025, episode of Public Power Now. Learn more about subscribing to Public Power Now at Publicpower.org/Podcasts. Some quotes may have been edited for clarity.
Paul Ciampoli
Welcome to the latest episode of Public Power Now. I'm Paul Ciampoli, APPA’s News Director. Our guest on this episode is Victor Fuentes, General Manager and CEO of Washington State's Franklin PUD.
This summer, Franklin PUD Commissioners finalized the appointment of Victor as the PUD's new General Manager and CEO.
Prior to the appointment, Victor served as interim general manager and CEO since February 1st, 2025. He's also served as Engineering Director and Engineering and Operations Senior Director at Franklin PUD.
Victor, thanks for joining us.
Victor Fuentes
Hey, thanks for having me, Paul.
Paul Ciampoli
Sure thing. So Victor, just to get our conversation kicked off, wanted to give you the opportunity to tell our listeners what your priorities have been since you became the permanent General Manager and CEO.
Victor Fuentes
First and foremost, we want to continue with our mission and that's provide affordable low cost power for our members all while maintaining safety at as our top priority.
When I moved into general manager, there was obviously a hole left from the engineering operations director role that I had previously. So I moved on that. We posted that position and we recently actually got that one filled, so we're going to be having someone start at the end of the month in that position.
I've created a position over in our operations for operations manager. It's a role that we've previously not had. But you know our admin and operations buildings are separately located within Pasco and so I just hope that brings cohesion and brings our operations and administration building closer together.
All that and then looking ahead at succession planning. There's a lot of retirements coming up and so we're just looking to make sure we fill those gaps and leave nothing to chance there.
Paul Ciampoli
That's a great segue to the next question I had for you, which is the hot topic these days of workforce.
And one of the things that jumped out at me as I was preparing for this interview is the launch of a successful student intern program at Franklin PUD and that is one of your achievements while you've been there.
So two questions for you. One, can you offer additional details on this program? And also, can you talk about other efforts at the Franklin PUD to proactively address workforce issues facing the sector, specifically recruitment and retention of workers as well as retirements of key personnel?
Victor Fuentes
So just for context, Franklin PUD had not had an intern for a decade when I had arrived and I said, you know, in order to attract talent, we really should think about bringing up an internship program [and] that snowballed into last year. We reopened that internship program.
We had two interns in our engineering department that I helped mentor along with some of my staff and really just had a positive outcome on that. You know, one of them recently graduated and they went into the relay industry working at Schweitzer. So really glad that they stepped into this industry. The other came back this year for a second year internship. He graduates next summer and he's really excited about potentially joining the electric industry.
Also this year we had one accounting intern. She was phenomenal, great work ethic and again, when we bring these interns in, we have great feedback.
Things I hear is they didn't know about the opportunities in our industry. And so really my hope is that they tell their friends as well so that we could really, really get some of that young, fresh college graduate pedigree back into our workforce.
And then as far as proactively addressing workforce issues within our utility sector, it is tough. I mean we find it hard to fill positions that are technical and that 5 to 10 year experience range.
We can certainly find new grads but once you get past that it's really tough. So we try to attract -- going on to the LinkedIn -- we've not had to use recruiters up till now but that's a potential avenue in the future.
We post where we can and then also just taking a different approach. Maybe we try looking at hiring people that are really not within the industry but still have experience. So maybe that's people that work at cities, at the federal level.
And so I think you leave no rock unturned when you start looking at that.
Paul Ciampoli
Is there any one segment within the PUD that you really are focused on in terms of -- perhaps like line workers?
Victor Fuentes
Up until now in our area, we've not had a huge issue attracting line workers or bargaining unit personnel. But some of these positions like field engineering, staking design -- it's a union position with us, but then even within some of the local utilities, they're not a union position and so again we've not had a huge issue trying to attract those, but there has been talk in our industry locally do we set up an apprenticeship program for something like the staking design role. So again we're lucky in that role.
We're finding it harder to find the non-bargaining -- the salaried technical positions is what we're having a little more difficulty on.
Paul Ciampoli
As you know, Washington State's Clean Energy Transformation Act requires Franklin PUD to develop a plan outlining how it will transition to 100% clean electricity by 2045.
So against that backdrop, what are the steps that you guys are taking in terms of meeting this requirement and how is the PUD engaging with customers to educate them about the Act as well as get their feedback as the plan is being developed?
Victor Fuentes
We are currently in development of that CETA plan. Up to date, we’ve conducted a survey to gather information from our customers and input regarding our transition to clean energy. Our demographic is largely Hispanic and so we have a lot of Spanish speaking customers. So we've offered that survey both in English and Spanish.
We're still gathering that data and then once we do have it, we'll go through and collect that information and hopefully include that into that clean energy implementation plan. And then we hope to present that to our Board of Commissioners later this fall is where we're currently at with that.
Paul Ciampoli
Obviously, it goes without saying that data centers are a really, really hot topic these days. So I thought I would be remiss if I didn't ask you about that and specifically wanted to know if any data centers have been proposed in the area served by Franklin PUD.
If not, how is the PUD preparing for the possibility of data centers being proposed in the service territory?
Victor Fuentes
Sure. That's a great question. If you look right across the river in Oregon, there's a great concentration of data centers.
And so yes, we have gotten inquiries, nothing official and nothing's really come to fruition, but as we continue to get these requests, our policy at Franklin PUD is growth pays for growth and so we don't speculate on large loads.
That just ensures the burden's not set on our customers, so we don't want to build it and then have them come, right? And so I think that's fairly common in our industry.
But that being said, we're a planned product customer of Bonneville Power, which just gives us great flexibility to serve our loads.
We can easily integrate market-based resources and then we are currently looking at developing a wheeling rate just in case one of these new large single loads does come to fruition.
Paul Ciampoli
I would imagine the upside of not having something specifically proposed at this point -- that gives you guys more time to plan for that eventuality.
Victor Fuentes
Correct. Yeah, and we do look at that obviously. We do have target areas where you know the Port of Pasco is really good at developing land and getting tenants in and so we have identified key areas and we just work well with our public agency partners and again if somebody were to come in we’d usually tell them growth pays for growth -- they understand that and again we've not had one on the hook, but certainly there's been people that have inquired.
Paul Ciampoli
OK, great. Well, Victor, thanks so much for taking time to speak with us today and I would love to have you back at some point in the future to discuss some of these topics and other areas that relate to the utility.
Victor Fuentes
Excellent. No, thank you for having me. This is a great opportunity and certainly would be glad to come back.
Paul Ciampoli
Sure thing. Thanks again, Victor.
Victor Fuentes
Thank you.
Paul Ciampoli
Thanks for listening to this episode of Public Power Now, which is produced by Julio Guerrero, graphic and digital designer at APPA.
I'm Paul Ciampoli and we'll be back next week with more from the world of public power.
