Committee advances bill clarifying public utility districts’ authority to self-perform certain renewable projects

The capital committee reported Substitute Senate Bill 6,076 out of committee with a due-pass-as-amended recommendation after adopting a technical amendment clarifying the scope of a self-performance authority for consumer-owned utilities.

Rob Hatfield, staff to the committee, told members the bill “makes several changes with regard to the authority of consumer owned utilities, primarily public utility districts, to construct certain public works projects.” He said the amendment Hatfield 208 is “primarily a technical amendment” that limits a $1,000,000 self-performance threshold to the non-emitting renewable-generation work identified in the bill, rather than to all work performed by public utility districts.

Representative Steele supported the amendment, calling it “simply a technical fix” and saying industry stakeholders “seem to like it too.” After brief discussion, members adopted Hatfield 208 by voice vote.

A member moved that the engrossed substitute bill be reported out of committee with a due-pass recommendation, and the committee then voted to report the bill out as amended. Staff announced the tally as 16 aye, 0 nay, 3 excused and 0 absent.

The bill, as amended, would adjust the procurement and construction authority for consumer-owned utilities, enabling certain public utility districts to self-perform scopes of work related to specified renewable-resource generation projects up to $1,000,000. The amendment clarifies that the dollar limit applies only to the renewable-generation scope described in the bill and does not expand PUD authority for unrelated types of work.

Next steps: the bill was reported out of committee with a due-pass-as-amended recommendation; no further committee action was recorded in the session.