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Cowlitz PUD received a payment of $14.66 million from the Bonneville
Power Administration in early April, and in-turn is distributing
those funds to most PUD customers in April and May via a billing
credit. The billing credit will be extended to PUD customers who
had an active account as of April 2, 2008 (the day BPA returned
the money), and who were also signed up for PUD service for any-or-all
of the period from October 2006 to September 2007. The credit is
based on each customer’s total electric usage in that 12-month
period. BPA is returning $336 million in interim payments to
Northwest power customers, which is money BPA collected through
wholesale power rates since October 2006 to fund the Residential
Exchange Program (REP). A Federal court has ruled that the REP
was improperly funded. For full details please read our
billing credit Q & A
and page 1 of the
April-May newsletter.
All 89 wind turbines are spinning and electricity is flowing at
the White Creek Wind Project in the Columbia River Gorge. Cowlitz
PUD, Klickitat PUD, Lakeview Light & Power and Tanner Electric
Co-op initiated the project, which is the largest wind project
developed by public power in the U.S. The wind farm will produce
enough electricity to light the equivalent of 38,000 Pacific
Northwest residences. Cowlitz PUD will purchase 46 percent of
that output for the next 20 years. For more information, check out our
White Creek fact
sheet.
The PUD’s advanced metering infrastructure project is well underway.
Following the successful installation and testing of 1,500 automated
meters in 2007, we are moving ahead with installation of another
11,000 meters in 2008. New installations in 2008 will take place
in Downtown Longview, the Broadway Addition, Lake Sacajawea area
and Olympic addition of Longview. It is possible that new meters
will also be installed in parts of Castle Rock and Kalama later
this year. When the date is nearing for installation of new meters
in your neighborhood, the PUD will send a letter to give you a
heads up. When the project is completed in 2011 all 48,000
customers will have a new meter that communicates on a real-time
basis with computers in the PUD office, via a signal over power
lines. We encourage you to read our monthly updates on automated
metering in our
newsletter
.
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