OPALCO rate hikes all but certain

The eight candidates for the Orcas Power and Light Cooperative (OPALCO) Board of Directors agree on one thing. Rates are all but certain to go up over the next four years, and both incumbents and challengers feel that the board’s number one priority will be to keep them from going through the roof.

OPALCO currently contracts with the Bonneville Power Administration to provide electricity to the San Juans at a fixed price. That contract is in effect until 2006. Bonneville has informed OPALCO that it intends in that year to seek “at best a 30 percent” increase in the cost of power, according to General Manager Randy Cornelius. It will cost OPALCO an additional $1.3 to $1.5 million a year should Bonneville’s intentions prove to be correct.

Cornelius has already informed board members that he will seek a series of smaller, incremental rate hikes over the next four years, although he admits that he won’t know for several months the size of each hike. His intent is to protect local buyers of electric power from seeing their rates go up drastically, all at one time, in 2006.

Here is what each of the candidates has to say about the impending situation:

William H. Burlew, Jr. (challenger) : “It’s going to be a struggle to keep the current rates. It’s going to be the primary struggle. The negotiations will be critical. It will take quite a bit of work to get the best rates we can. It will take a strong effort to keep rates in line.”

Tom Cannon (challenger) : “Undoubtedly, we’re faced with a rate increase. Conservation and green energy may help, but until major sources of power come on, there will be major power shortages in this country, and it takes 10 to 15 years to build a power plant.

Roger Crosby (incumbent): “I see the two most challenging issues presently facing directors as (1) maintaining Bonneville Power Administration as the controller of power transmission to OPALCO and (2) holding down rates in these turbulent times.”

Austin Grant (challenger): “I have serious questions whether we can maintain our favorable rate schedule. We’ll have to work very hard to make sure we are not over-run by bureaucracy.”

Richard (Dick) Hansen (challenger): “We need to continue looking at economizing the use of power, and keep in mind that there is going to be growth and using more power with all the technology out there. There are now a lot more demands on the system.”

Ed Peterson (incumbent): “Bonneville wants more money because it’s not getting its bills paid. Rather than come up with one big jump, the board favors gradual increases. We are also aware of the need for green power.”

Doug Schliebus (challenger): “We need new ideas. I’m a big fan of wind power and photo voltaic cells. Fuel cells are the wave of the future. Within 10 years we’ll all have a fuel cell in our front yards. I have talked to people at OPALCO. They know these things are coming. Nobody knows the role power companies will play in the future, however.”

Martin Taylor (challenger): “The big issue is the higher rates. We’ll have to continue to look to Bonneville for a considerable portion of our power, but we need to start diversifying. Over the next 20 years we’ll have to expand green power. We should also emphasize conservation as much as possible.”

This year’s candidates are all from Orcas

All eight of the candidates are from Orcas Island. The seats on the OPALCO board are all three years. The winners will be the top two vote getters.

Next year OPALCO will elect two board members from San Juan Island, while in 2005 it will pick three new board members, two from Lopez and one from Shaw.

Every OPALCO member should have received the cooperative’s annual report, which includes biographical information about each candidate, and ballots for the two director positions. They must be mailed in time to assure arrival at OPALCO’s Eastsound office no later than Friday, May 9.

The winners will be announced at the annual meeting Saturday, May 10, from 11:10 a.m. to 12:50 p.m. on a Washington State Ferry.

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