Your PUD News Release
PUD customers' highest priority: Keeping rates low
Chelan County PUD
News Release
12/8/2008
About one-third of the customers of Chelan County PUD believe the biggest challenge for the future is keeping rates low, according to results of a telephone survey of 400 customer-owners taken this October.
Bill Robinson of Robinson Research, Spokane, presented results to the PUD Board of Commissioners Monday morning at their weekly board meeting. Other top issues and concerns facing the PUD over the next several years, as named by customers, included:
- Ensuring that enough power is available
- Environmental issues
- High salaries
- Energy conservation
- Money management
Overall satisfaction with the PUD dropped to 93 percent from the 97 percent reported last year, but Robinson said satisfaction was remarkably high given the atmosphere in which the survey was done. Robinson said it is typical to see overall satisfaction scores in these kinds of surveys drop during periods when general consumer confidence is low – such as during October when the survey calls were made. The global financial crisis has sent consumer confidence numbers plunging, he said.
Another question that ranked the overall assessment of the job Chelan County PUD is doing went from a composite of 6.10 (out of a maximum possible 7.0 score) last year to 5.82 this year. But the score was up from the low of 5.76 in 2002.
Asked what kinds of activities the PUD should invest in, the top items included:
- Modernizing hydroelectric dams (5.95, out of possible 7)
- Promoting energy conservation (5.94)
- Improvements in power lines and substations (5.89)
- Acquiring alternative energy sources (5.70)
- Additional water reservoirs and pipelines (5.38)
- Building the fiber-optic infrastructure (5.06)
Approximately one-third of respondents said the PUD should be doing more to encourage conservation, and 55 percent said the PUD is doing the right amount to encourage conservation. Seventy-six percent of respondents said they had replaced some bulbs in their homes with compact fluorescents (CFLs).
The customer attitude survey was the 13th telephone survey conducted by the PUD since 1989, including the last three years in a row. With a tight budget, no survey is planned in 2009.
Read the executive summary of the survey.
In other business, PUD commissioners:
- Heard a request from city of Chelan officials who are interested in creating a water-access plan for a portion of the south shore of Lake Chelan uplake from what’s known as the three fingers area. Part of the land they are discussing is owned by the PUD, and the group asked for PUD staff to work with them in exploring ideas for public access. PUD commissioners reminded the group that the PUD must abide by requirements in its Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) license.
- Heard an update from James Oakley of Energy Northwest on the agency’s power generation projects. The PUD is a member of the agency and a participant in its Nine Canyon Wind Project.
- Authorized a policy allowing the PUD to pay for travel expenses for a job candidate’s spouse when the candidate is invited for a final interview for a “specialized technical professional or managerial position.”
- Received notice that the final biological opinion for a new operating license for Rocky Reach Dam has been received by FERC and that the new license may be issued this month or next.
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PUD commissioners will meet with members of the Entiat Customer Partnership Group from noon to 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 10, at the Entiat Public Library.
The next regular meeting of the PUD commission is at 11 a.m. on Monday, Dec. 15, in the boardroom at PUD headquarters, 327 N. Wenatchee Ave.
Most PUD commission meetings are recorded and a link to the audio is available on the PUD’s home page at www.chelanpud.org.
Christy Shearer
Deputy Public Information Officer
Chelan County PUD
(509) 661.4258 office
(509) 421.4258 cell
(509) 661.8133 fax
christy.shearer@chelanpud.org