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Rocky Reach settlement agreement on the table

Chelan County PUD
News Release
12/19/2005

Rocky Reach settlement agreement on the table
PUD commissioners Monday discussed a $394 million agreement in principle for the terms of a new 50-year license for the Rocky Reach Hydroelectric Project. The agreement was reached with local and regional stakeholders and will go to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for consideration after participants sign it early next year.

Legislative update
PUD commissioners Monday met with state legislators Sen. Linda Evans-Parlette, Rep. Mike Armstrong and Rep. Cary Condotta’s legislative aide, Kurt Hammond, to discuss the 2006 legislative session and a potential renewable portfolio standard initiative.

Commissioners expressed concerns over the potential initiative, which could require larger Washington utilities to provide 10 percent of their load with renewable energy by 2015, and 15 percent by 2020. Washington state would not consider hydroelectric power a renewable energy source under the proposed initiative.

Commissioners asked the legislators to continue last year’s effort to declare hydro a renewable resource and to be active in educating their peers about the benefits of clean, renewable hydropower.

Puget Sound Energy contract discussions continue
Commissioners met with representatives of Puget Sound Energy (PSE) to further discuss the proposed long-term power sales contract that would give PSE a 25 percent slice of the power produced at Rocky Reach and Rock Island dams in exchange for paying 25 percent of the costs to operate the projects from 2011-2012 to 2031.

PUD commissioners asked where the power would be sold and what costs would be paid by PSE customers. Vice President of Development and Contract Management Paul Wiegand, and Manager of Hydro Contracts, Energy Production and Storage Joel Molander, said all of the power purchased from the PUD would go to serve PSE customers, all in Washington state, and that PSE’s costs for the power would be passed through in customers’ rates.

Wiegand and Molander also thanked the Board for considering the agreement, saying that certainty of including that power in their power resource portfolio post 2011 was important.

A public meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Jan. 9, at the Wenatchee Center to explain the potential contract to the public and answer questions.

In other business, commissioners:

• Approved a five-year agreement with state Department of Fish and Wildlife, WDFW, to operate the PUD’s three hatchery programs. WDFW has operated the hatcheries since Chelan Falls Hatchery’s inception in 1963. They have operated the Eastbank Hatchery complex and Rocky Reach Annex since the early 1990s. The new contract will not exceed $2.8 million for 2006, and costs for the remainder of the contract will be negotiated annually. Commissioner Ann Congdon voted against the agreement with reservations about it not being sent out for bids.
• Set 2006 commission meetings to begin at 1 p.m.
• Set a special meeting for 11 a.m. on Dec. 29, to continue developing a profile for a new general manager.

***

The Dec. 27 commission meeting is canceled for the holidays.

The next regular meeting of the PUD commission will start at 1 p.m., Tuesday, Jan. 3, in the boardroom of the Headquarters Building, 327 N. Wenatchee Ave.

Most PUD commission meetings are recorded and a link to the audio is available on the PUD’s Web site, www.chelanpud.org.

Christy Shearer
Communications Audio-visual Specialist
(509) 661-4258
(509) 421-4258 cell
christy.shearer@chelanpud.org