Grant PUD staff has proposed a 16-month power-sales “bridge” agreement that would change the way Grant PUD sells about one-third of its share of the generation from Priest Rapids and Wanapum dams and better positions the utility to serve its growing customer demand in a changing market, the Washington State PUD said on Sept. 11.
The contract, called a “service confirmation,” is with energy marketer Morgan Stanley to sell 33.31% of Grant PUD’s portion of the dams’ hydropower and handle other market functions, Rich Flanigan, Grant PUD’s vice president of Energy Supply Markets, told commissioners.
The “bridge” contract would begin Sept. 30 and extend through Jan. 31, 2027, when a new trading partner –- Florida-based The Energy Authority -– will begin providing wholesale marketing services, power-portfolio optimization, support for power purchased under contract from the Bonneville Power Administration and other market support.
Under an existing but soon-to-expire, five-year contract, Morgan Stanley buys a 33.3% portion or “slice” of the dams’ hydropower and capacity at an agreed-upon price to sell under its own terms to its own, hydropower-seeking customers.
In exchange, Morgan Stanley sells back to Grant PUD enough “mixed resource” (not 100% hydropower) electricity from the regional wholesale energy market to supply the homes, farms, businesses and industry of Grant County.
The existing arrangement protects Grant PUD from market price swings by locking in a contracted rate for its hydropower, ensuring the utility has enough energy to supply its own customers and assuming the risk presented by low-water years, when the dams can’t produce as much electricity. These benefits have served the utility and its customers well over the past decade, the PUD noted.
But demand for electricity is increasing, region wide. Grant PUD’s own power and transmission portfolios are more diversified, now including hydropower, solar and wind with sights on additional future resources. The state’s clean-energy legislation creates challenges that Grant PUD can better face under the proposed new contract, Flanigan said.
The new contract conditions enable the utility to participate in the new Western Resource Adequacy Program (WRAP) -- a group of western utilities that are creating an energy-sharing/trading arrangement. WRAP membership provides access to additional energy resources and markets during scarcity events during the summer and winter months.
Grant PUD must retain -- not parcel out in a slice contract as it current does -- that 33.3% of its generation capacity to participate in these new markets and benefit from energy credits provided by the state’s Clean Energy Transformation Act to help utilities transition to a carbon-free energy supply by 2045.
Grant PUD Commissioners are scheduled to vote on the proposed new contract with Morgan Stanley at their next meeting, Sept. 23, 2025.
