Dedicated to the citizens of Mason County, Washington since 1886
Dedicated to the citizens of Mason County, Washington since 1886
Mason County PUD 1 will receive $594,857 from the Bonneville Power Administration’s Power Dividend Distribution Credit through the next 10 months. PUD 1 will pass that money on to its customers after approving the action at the Dec. 13 commissioners meeting.
PUD 1 staff proposed setting aside $25,000 in the local government investment pool to help fund the PUD’s low-income energy assistance program as required by the state’s Clean Energy Transformation Act and the remaining $569,857 will be divided evenly among existing electric customers and passed through as a bill credit each month from December to September.
If there is another Power Dividend Distribution Credit next year, staff will evaluate budget needs and develop a proposal for board approval.
“As a preference customer of the Bonneville Power Administration, Mason PUD 1 wants to recognize the work BPA has put in to strengthen their financial position over the last two years, since our last rate case,” PUD 1 District Treasurer and Director of Business Services Katie Arnold told the Journal. “We also appreciate that BPA has agreed to refund a large portion of the power and transmission surplus to its customers in the form of both direct refunds and future rate relief. We are pleased to be able to directly pass through the majority of this refund to our power customers over the next 10 months.”
According to a PUD 1 news release, the BPA achieved gross sales that came in $625 million higher than the BP-22 Rate Case target of $372 million due to higher megawatt hour sales and higher market pricing. Healthy reserves brought in the BPA’s Reserve Distribution Clause for power and transmission. Power reserves distribution was $500 million and the BPA proposed to redistribute 70% toward rate reduction, 20% toward BPA’s debt reduction or revenue financing and 10% toward fish and wildlife mitigation. Transmission reserves distribution of $63.1 million included redistributing 50% for rate relief and hold the remaining 50% to cover fiscal year 2023 increased costs due to inflation.
The 2023 budget was developed without the proposed credit because it is considered an anomaly based on unexpected market conditions and PUD 1 did not want to base the revenue requirement on a credit that is not guaranteed past 2023, according to the news release.
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