REGION
Saturday, auguSt 6, 2022
tHE OBSErVEr — A3
Local law sidelines Athena charging station project
By JOHN TILLMAN
THREE EV CHARGING
SPEED LEVELS
East Oregonian
ATHENA — Grant Richie, of
Minam, proposed building a high-
speed electric vehicle charging
station at his One Stop super-
market and gas station at Main
and Fifth streets in Athena. But
the project ran afoul of Athena’s
law banning new overhead power
cables.
“There is only one universal
fast-charging station in Pend-
leton,” Richie said, “and one in
Dayton. Walla Walla doesn’t have
one. Wildhorse Resort has Tesla
chargers, but there is no universal
high-speed charger between
Pendleton and Dayton or the
Tri-Cities.”
He also owns stores in Minam
and Walla Walla, and Home Hard-
wood Floors, while working as a
river guide.
The Athena ordinance requires
connections to existing overhead
lines and any new local electricity
or telephone lines to go under-
ground, and lines to replace out-
dated existing overhead lines also
have to go underground.
Project two years in process
Richie said he worked with
Pacific Power to draw up a pro-
posal based on the less expensive
option of stringing power cables
overhead. The power pole across
the alley from the One Stop is
maxed out with transformers.
Pacific Power would have to put
up a new pole and run two lines
about 20 feet to bring 480 volts
for the charger.
“I began planning and working
on this project nearly two years
ago to bring DC fast charging
capabilities to Athena,” Richie
wrote the city. “This is not an
easy feat, as DC fast chargers are
around $50,000 apiece, just for
the charger before anything else.
Our DC fast charging project is
The U.S. Department of Transporta-
tion recognizes three electric vehicle
charging speeds.
The slowest, Level 1 equipment, pro-
vides charging through a common res-
idential 120-volt alternating current
outlet. Level 1 chargers can take 40 to
50 hours to charge a battery electric
vehicle from empty and five to six hours
for a plug-in hybrid EV.
Level 2 equipment offers charging
through 240-volt electrical service in
residential applications or 208 volts in
commercial. It is common for home,
workplace and public charging. Level
2 chargers can charge a battery elec-
tric vehicle from empty in four to 10
hours and a plug-in hybrid in one to
two hours.
The fastest speed, direct-current
fast charging equipment, enables rapid
charging along heavy-traffic corridors
at installed stations. The equipment can
charge a BEV to 80% in just 20 minutes
to one hour. Most PHEVs on the market
do not work with fast chargers.
PROPOSED PROJECT FOR
VEHICLE CHARGING STATION
Grant Richie’s project for high-speed
direct-current electric vehicle chargers at
the One Stop market and gas station on
Main and Fifth streets in Athena calls for
overhead power lines. A local law, however,
requires underground installation of new
transmission lines.
grant richie/Contributed Graphic
projected to cost over $100,000.”
Richie said he researched
grants, charging systems and
associated infrastructure and
spent several days writing a grant
and hired an additional writer for
help last year.
“Pacific Power flew a consul-
tant from back East to Athena to
go over our proposed project,”
Richie continued, “and see if
it would fit the grant require-
ments. We finally received partial
funding (two weeks ago), which
is why I was meeting with Walla
Walla Electric and Pacific Power
to go over the final placement of
the meter in the alleyway.”
And that, he said, is when
he learned from Pacific Power
about Athena’s ban on overhead
transmission lines. Richie then
emailed city government about
the project.
“It was not easy to get the
grant for this project,” he wrote,
“and I will be footing the bill for
a large portion of it. Athena will
get valuable infrastructure at no
cost to the city.”
Richie also said he sought out
the best charging system for Ath-
ena’s and his needs.
“Community members need
this infrastructure to have the
choice to adopt (electric vehi-
cles),” he wrote, “and I have put
forth the time and money to get
this project done. With current
gas prices, (residents) need the
option of an EV now more than
ever.”
After sending the email,
Richie received a phone call from
Athena Mayor Becky Schro-
eder. She told him the city would
not give him a variance, because
then it would have to give one to
anyone else who asked for one.
“I explained the importance
of this project to the people of
Athena,” Richie said, “but she
was not moved to change her
position.”
City stands firm
Schroeder confirmed the gist
of their conversation.
“We’re not a stick in the
mud,” she said, “but anyone
in Athena wanting an electric
vehicle would probably charge it
at home.”
Anyone from out of town
coming off Highway 11 to charge
a car at the One Stop might buy
food or drink there, she added.
A visitor would be less liable to
walk another block to the Sugar
Shack sandwich cafe or farther
to the Doubletree restaurant and
lounge. Thus Athena’s economy
would not greatly benefit from a
fast charger, she said.
She said she blames the power
company for not making optional
plans for underground cables and
a vault.
“I would urge Mr. Richie
and Pacific Power to go back to
the drawing board to see if the
project might be feasible with
buried cable,” Schroeder said.
Richie said he is not sure if
a vault for underground cables
would even fit on his premises.
He has not yet applied for a vari-
ance with the planning commis-
sion or city council.
Notice
Recently, Avista requested a change in natural gas rates for our
Oregon customers. We know you care about your energy costs,
so we think it’s important to share this news with you.
On July 29, 2022, Avista made four annual rate adjustment filings with
the Public Utility Commission of Oregon (PUC) that if approved, are
designed to increase overall natural gas revenue by approximately $27.5
million or 21.9% effective Nov. 1, 2022. These filings have no impact on
Avista’s earnings.
Baker County Sheriff’s Office/Contributed Photo
A single-engine air tanker drops fire retardant near Keating on Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2022.
Baker County firefighters quickly
corral lightning-sparked blaze
By JAYSON JACOBY
Baker City Herald
BAKER CITY — Jeff
Phillips was surprised that
only one fire started.
The thunderstorm
that passed through
the northern side of
the Keating Valley
Wednesday, Aug. 3,
spawned far more than a
single lightning bolt.
But only the one that
struck just east of Gilkison
Sawmill Road, less than
a mile northeast of Phil-
lips’ home on a hill near the
Keating School, ignited the
grass that’s turned to tinder
during the record-breaking
heat wave that started the
last week of July.
“It immediately took
off,” Phillips said of the
fire that ended up burning
197 acres. “There’s a lot of
fuel.”
But there were also a
lot of eyes on the smoke
that rapidly rose as flames
charred sagebrush and
grass, including highly
combustible cheatgrass.
Phillips, who is a cattle
rancher, said ranchers were
the first to respond, with
two bulldozers digging
control lines soon after the
fire started. Phillips said
there were control lines
around about two-thirds of
the fire before crews from
multiple agencies arrived.
Chuck Lowry, a rancher
who lives along Tucker
Creek, a half a mile or
so west of where the fire
started, said he used a
tractor with a disc harrow
to cut a fire break.
Three bulldozers were
at work almost immedi-
ately, he said, including
one from the North Powder
Rural Fire Protection
District.
Buzz Harper, chief of
the Keating Rural Fire
Protection District, said he
watched the storm cross
the valley with trepidation.
He and Curt Jacobs, a
local rancher, were on dif-
ferent hilltops with good
views across the area
during the storm and kept
in contact by phone.
They both saw the light-
ning hit near Gilkison
Sawmill Road, and within
a minute or so, dark smoke
was visible, Harper said.
He said he arrived
within about five minutes,
and the fire had already
burned an acre or two.
Within eight minutes he
estimated the fire at 30
acres “and running.”
The Baker County
Sheriff’s Office issued a
Level 2 notice for several
homes, asking residents
to be ready to evacuate if
needed.
There were no
evacuations.
Lowry, Phillips and
Harper all lauded the rapid
response from firefighters
from more than half a
dozen agencies, including
volunteer fire and range-
land protection districts,
the Bureau of Land Man-
agement, Oregon Depart-
ment of Forestry and U.S.
Forest Service.
“I’m very thankful
for all the resources that
showed up,” Lowry said.
Phillips agreed.
“A lot of good people
came to help,” he said.
“We’re fortunate to have
all these people and
resources available to
handle these fires.”
BLM firefighters moni-
tored the fire overnight and
into Aug. 4 to make sure
the blaze didn’t flare up.
The fire started on
public land managed by
the BLM, and 194 of the
197 acres burned are
public land, Harper said.
The 3 acres of private
property are on Lowry’s
ranch.
Although the Keating
Fire was corralled quickly,
Phillips said he will con-
tinue to watch with con-
cern if, as often happens
during August and early
September, thunderclouds
once again billow against
the blue sky.
“It’s just the beginning
of fire season,” he said.
The first rate adjustment is related to Avista’s decoupling mechanism.
Decoupling is designed to break the link between a utility’s revenues
and customers’ energy usage. Generally, Avista’s natural gas revenues
are adjusted each month based on the number of customers rather than
therms sales. The difference between revenues based on therm sales
and revenues based on the number of customers is surcharged or
rebated to customers beginning in the following year. If approved,
Avista’s request is designed to increase overall natural gas revenue by
approximately $3.5 million or 2.8%. This rate adjustment is driven
primarily by a lower level of customer usage in 2021-22 due in part to
a warmer than normal winter.
The second rate adjustment is the annual Purchased Gas Cost
Adjustment (PGA) filing. PGAs are filed each year to balance the actual
cost of wholesale natural gas purchased by Avista to serve customers
with the amount included in rates. This includes the natural gas
commodity cost as well as the cost to transport natural gas on interstate
pipelines to Avista’s local distribution system. If approved, Avista’s natural
gas revenues would increase by approximately $23.9 million or 19.1%.
This rate adjustment is driven primarily by wholesale natural gas prices,
which are higher than the level presently included in rates. Avista does
not profit on the actual natural gas commodity or the costs to transport
natural gas to Avista’s service territory.
The remaining two miscellaneous adjustments relate to intervenor
funding and recovering costs associated with regulatory fees. The
combination of those two miscellaneous filings is an increase in overall
natural gas revenue of approximately $73 thousand or 0.1% effective
Nov. 1, 2022.
The bottom line
If all four requests are approved, and you are an Avista natural gas
customer using an average of 48 therms per month, you could expect
your bill to increase by $13.10, or 19.2% for a revised monthly bill of
$81.27 beginning Nov. 1, 2022. All other customer groups receiving firm
natural gas service from Avista would also see increases.
For more information
Copies of our filings are available at www.myavista.com/rates or you can
call us at 1-800-227-9187.
This announcement is to provide you with general information about
Avista’s rate request and its effect on customers. The calculations and
statements in this announcement are not binding on the PUC. For more
information about the filing or for information about the time and place
of any hearing, contact the PUC at:
Public Utility Commission of Oregon
201 High Street SE, Ste. 100
Salem, OR 97301
(800)522-2404, www.puc.state.or.us
This notice contains forward-looking statements regarding the Company’s
current expectations. Forward-looking statements are all statements other than
historical facts. Such statements speak only as of the date of the notice and are
subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the
Company’s control, which could cause actual results to differ materially from the
expectations. These risks and uncertainties include, in addition to those discussed
herein, all the factors discussed in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K
for the year ended Dec. 31, 2021 and the Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the
quarter ended March 31, 2022.