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Grant PUD Conducts Fourth Successful Power Auction
November 10, 2008

EPHRATA, WA – Grant PUD’s highly successful power auction yielded a total of $66,600,353.98. Two successful bidders will receive equal slices of clean, renewable hydropower produced by the Priest Rapids Project. Macquarie Cook Power Inc. and Cargill Power Markets LLC will each receive 11.32 percent of the output from Priest Rapids Dam from January through October of 2009, and 10.51 percent of Priest Rapids Project output during November and December of 2009. 

This is the fourth year for the Grant PUD power auction, the first of its kind in the nation. It is also the only block of power offered at auction by the utility. This year’s slice of Priest Rapids Project power could equal approximately 130 average megawatts of energy over the twelve-month period, which would be shared equally between the two winners of the auction.

Attuned to the constraints of a tight credit market and the risk of default, Grant PUD staff took a prudent approach to the auction design by creating two blocks of energy, which elicited 10 bids.

The auction was developed in response to a 1998 order from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that required Grant PUD to sell a reasonable portion of its firm and non-firm power generation according to market-based principles.

"Winning a slice of the Priest Rapids Project offers Cargill a unique opportunity to grow our business in the Pacific Northwest,” said John Ivey, Director of West Power Origination Cargill Power Markets
LLC. “We look forward to working with Grant County PUD on this project and to serving more customers in the region."

Ben Preston, head of Macquarie Cook Power Inc. commented, “We are delighted to have been awarded a slice in Grant PUD’s recent hydro auction. This renewable hydropower investment enhances our activities in the Western Electricity Coordinating Council and strengthens our ability to provide solutions to our power customers.”

Grant PUD General Manager Tim Culbertson added, “We are proud to serve Pacific Northwest ratepayers with a clean renewable source of energy. Sharing the benefits of the Priest Rapids Project makes an important contribution to the regional economy, and we are proud to do our part to make this possible. We look forward to working with both parties in the same positive manner we have enjoyed with previous auction winners.”

Grant PUD owns and operates Priest Rapids and Wanapum dams on the Columbia River in Washington state. The two hydroelectric facilities, licensed together as the Priest Rapids Project, make up one of the nation’s largest non-federal hydropower projects with the capacity to produce nearly 2,000 megawatts of clean, renewable electricity.

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Grant County Public Utility District is a Washington state municipal corporation that began electric service in 1942.  Owned by the people it serves, Grant PUD generates and sells electricity to Grant County residents and millions of customers throughout Central Washington and the Pacific Northwest.  The Priest Rapids Project, comprised of Priest Rapids and Wanapum Dams, produces nearly 2,000 megawatts of clean, renewable and reliable electricity – enough to supply a city the size of Seattle.  A leader in science based technology; Grant PUD is committed to finding effective measures for the protection, mitigation and enhancement of salmon, steelhead and other natural and cultural resources.

MEDIA CONTACT:
Kathy Kiefer
(509) 754-6625 / kkiefer@gcpud.org