PUD studies charger for electric cars

The Wahkiakum County PUD Board of Commissioners listened to reports and went over the 2020 budget at their meeting on Tuesday.

General Manager Dave Tramblie said he had spoken to Bonneville Power Administration regarding a possible overcharge.

“I think we’re going to be where we should be, but the moral of the story is that we need to keep an eye on that,” Tramblie said. “I believe that is going to be resolved appropriately. I give kudos to BPA for being really responsive.”

Tramblie also said he had spoken to a supplier of electric vehicle charging stations.

The price on a charger that could charge two cars at a time, taking between 20 and 60 minutes was $40,800, Tramblie said. “That’s the type of charger, if people knew that was in the community, they could stop and have lunch and get refilled and boom they’re on the road.”

A level two charger, which takes two to six hours to charge a vehicle would cost about $8,000 Tramblie added.

“I noticed that there was a conversation that Port 1 had about this, that was in the paper,” Tramblie said. “Maybe there is community support for having these in town, so I thought I would have conversations with other entities and see if there is a way to move forward with this.”

Finally, Tramblie noted that the PUD was on track to finish the project to upgrade to AMR meters by mid-December, with less than 100 electric meters and 40 water meters to install.

Auditor Erin Wilson went over the 2020 budgets for the electric system, the Puget

Island Water System, and the Western Wahkiakum Water System. Staff proposed a $7 increase to the base fee for the electric system, and a two percent increase to the base fee and two percent increase for consumption on the WWWS. There is no rate increase proposed for the PIWS.

“Next year, I don’t anticipate a rate increase,” Tramblie said. “A good portion of this is going to pay BPA’s increase, which I believe is going to be in the $50,000-$60,000 range. In a perfect world, BPA shouldn’t have another rate increase. If we choose to just let our reserves dwindle, then when we have these big projects come up, then we are not going to have reserves there to cover it.”

Commissioners approved a resolution to adopt the district’s updated Western Wahkiakum Water System plan.

A budget hearing will be held at the next PUD meeting on Nov. 12.