Is PSE the best we can do?

To the editor:

How well is Puget Sound Energy serving ratepayers like you and me? And is a PUD the only other option?

As a PUD alternative consider the performance of OPALCO, the electric utility cooperative supplying power to San Juan County, just one of some 900 electric power co-ops that serve 42 million Americans. OPALCO serves 11,000 customers on 20 islands, requiring a very expensive redundant network of underwater cables connecting the islands to each other and the mainland. As well, their land-based infrastructure is also much more expensive than ours due to significantly lower population density.

Their power reliability exceeds ours partly due to being 87 percent undergrounded and having more up-to-date equipment. This also means their county-wide crew of only 16 linemen have been consistently able to restore power quickly after storms without outside help, in spite of the challenge of moving crews and equipment by ferry and barge from island to island. In a recent storm with 60-100 mph gusts, the 3,300 customers who lost power were back on line within 30 hours using only local OPALCO crews. Additionally, OPALCO power is sourced primarily from Bonneville hydroelectric and renewable energy sources, unlike PSE’s heavy dependence on dirty coal. (As a bonus, OPALCO also supplies a full-service fiber and wireless broadband at nonprofit rates, something Bainbridge Islanders can only envy.)

So how is it that the rates (cost per kilowatt-hour) I have paid PSE have been consistently around 10 percent higher than the rates I have paid OPALCO for residential electrical service over the last 14 years? Where are the touted economies of scale PSE claims? Without being charged in our monthly bills for PSE profits leaving our local economy, the cost of a PSE infrastructure buyout does not seem so formidable.

Some are suggesting that Bainbridge Island city government would mismanage an electric utility. The simple answer is that while public electrical utilities may be accountable in various ways to local government, they are independently and autonomously managed by competent professionals as are our police, libraries, parks and school districts.

If you still fearful of the alleged city hall micromanagement, go for a co-op, which answers only to its ratepayer members. Either way, PUD or co-op, I believe we can expect to be money ahead, with cleaner power and better service as well. I’ve experienced it.

DELYLE ELLEFSON

Bainbridge and Orcas Island