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That was an interesting question. First, there is no doubt that power in Seattle is cheaper than it is here. If we had our own hydroelectric plants, and we sold as many kWh per dollar of investment as Seattle does, our rates would also be a lot lower. But the truth is, someday you will be able to buy your power from Seattle City Light instead of OPALCO. Will it save you money? Probably not. Let's see how much it would cost to buy 1000 kWh from City Light. First, you need to negotiate transmission contracts with at least three different entities (Seattle, Puget Power, BPA and possibly Snohomish PUD, depending on which transmission route you select). I don't know how much they are going to charge you, but Bonneville's share to get the power from Anacortes to Lopez would be about $5.00 for 1000 kWh. Puget will charge you for the use of their system from where they take delivery of the power from Seattle and deliver it to Bonneville in Anacortes. Puget will also charge you for "control area" services to meet your changing loads on a minute to minute basis. If you don't feel comfortable negotiating contracts with three different power companies, there will be plenty of others who will do that for you, but the cost would definitely be higher than if you did it yourself. You will have to buy more power than you need to make up for losses involved with moving the power. Puget charges 5% line loss, BPA about 3%. I don't know what City Light charges. Now you have the power to the Bonneville substation on Lopez Island - still a long way from Orcas. Unless you are willing to build substations and install submarine cables, you are going to come back to OPALCO and contract with us to deliver the power from Lopez to your home. It will be somewhat cheaper than what we charge today because we won't have to buy the power - you are doing that. We won't have to charge you to get the power to Lopez because you are paying for that directly. We won't have to read your meter and send you a bill, because Seattle City Light will do that. Overall, will you save money? I doubt it. If you are a Boeing plant, an aluminum plant or a 60 story high-rise office building, you probably could save money. If you feel that we are efficient in our operations, I doubt that you will find it cheaper to buy power from someone else. Of the $70 that we charge for 1000 kWh, about $28 of that goes to BPA for power and getting it to Lopez. $42 goes to OPALCO for getting it to your house, sending you a bill and all the other things that we do. Under retail wheeling, it is likely that the amount we charge for getting the power to your home will be regulated by the state or federal government. So the question is, will Seattle City Light sell you power cheaply enough so that you can pay the various costs to get it to Lopez for less than $28 per 1000 kWh? I don't know whether you can, but in a couple of years, everyone is going to have the opportunity to find out. Next time, I will talk about why it costs $42 to deliver the power to your home.
Doug Bechtel
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