What happened in Snohomish County

E-mail this article Print this article

City light customers aren't the only ones to get soaked by the energy crisis.

Snohomish County Public Utility District (PUD) raised its rates 59 percent in 2001. But, unlike City Light, its rates are headed down: Commissioners enacted a 5.1 percent decrease Wednesday, effective April 1.

In part, the utility got into trouble because, like Seattle, it sold its interest in a Centralia power plant in 2000 but did not take immediate steps to replace that power.

Managers bought power to cover some of the shortage, deciding instead to wait through the fall of 2000 for market prices to come down.

Instead, prices mostly went up.

By December, managers dared not face the rest of the winter without long-term power contracts to cover the shortage.

Two of the contracts shackled the PUD for prices between $105 and $150 per megawatt hour for eight years and eight months. Prices before and after the crisis were in the $20 to $40 range.

"It's like having a gun to your head and being asked, you want to have a deal, don't you?" said Mike Gianunzio , general counsel for the PUD. "We had no choice at that time but to buy power right now."

The PUD has gone to court and to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to modify and terminate the contracts.