Grays Harbor PUD reports steady finances, broadband grant and long Bonneville contract

Grays Harbor PUD representatives presented an annual report to the Cosmopolis council and residents on Jan. 21, saying the utility entered 2026 with a balanced budget and no customer rate increase.

The presentation, delivered by the PUD’s government relations director and General Manager Skyler Brookhart, said the utility last year sold about 875,000 megawatt‑hours and is operating on roughly a $123.5 million budget. ‘‘We were able to pass our budget in November without a customer rate increase,’’ a PUD representative told the meeting, citing conservative budgeting and use of reserves.

The PUD outlined infrastructure and staffing: about 1,700 miles of overhead and underground power lines, 36 substations, roughly 350 miles of fiber and about 165 full‑time employees. Crews replaced 462 poles in 2025 and the utility reported spending about $16 million on capital projects to strengthen the system.

Skyler Brookhart, identified at the meeting as the PUD’s general manager, described a new long‑term load‑following contract with the Bonneville Power Administration that the utility signed earlier this year. ‘‘It comes at a lower rate per megawatt hour… it’s almost a 20‑year contract… it goes through the year 2044,’’ Brookhart said, adding the arrangement gives the PUD better budget stability.

The utility also described its wholesale telecommunications business and said it won a state broadband office grant of about $6,900,000 to extend fiber to more than 500 additional customers in the South Elma/Oakville corridor. The PUD said telecom revenue has been growing and that it connected 57 new customers last year.

Officials reviewed storm and outage response: two late‑year storms knocked out about 30,000 and 20,000 customers; crews prioritized safety and restored service quickly. The PUD said it is adopting a new online outage‑management system so customers can view outage maps and register for notifications.

On policy, PUD staff reiterated compliance obligations under the state Clean Energy Transformation Act, which requires utilities to reach carbon‑free power by 2045. Presenters warned that removing hydroelectric capacity on the Columbia and Snake rivers would pose resource‑adequacy challenges and could increase costs. ‘‘If you take away hydro, we’re going to be looking at a major reliability issue,’’ a PUD speaker said.

In question‑and‑answer, council members and residents pressed the utility on reserves and the plan to draw modestly from them in 2026. The PUD said it expects to draw a few million dollars this year while aiming to replenish funds over approximately two years and that the utility currently holds about 100 days of cash on hand (policy requires about 90 days).

The PUD invited anyone with outage reports to call dispatch or 911 and to use the new outage center on ghpud.org for maps and notifications. The presentation closed with an invitation to follow up with PUD staff for energy efficiency and customer assistance programs.