NEWS
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2019
HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A3
Industrial development feeds UEC growth
By JADE MCDOWELL
NEWS EDITOR
As industrial develop-
ment drives growth around
Hermiston and Boardman,
Umatilla Electric Cooper-
ative is experiencing rapid
growth of its own.
It took the Hermis-
ton-based, consumer-owned
cooperative 77 years to
sell its fi rst billion kilo-
watt hours. This year alone
it expects to provide cus-
tomers just shy of 3 billion
KWH.
“Our average growth
has been close to 20% per
year in the last eight years,”
Umatilla Electric CEO Rob-
ert Echenrode said, noting
that the increased volume
comes despite advances
in energy effi ciency caus-
ing individual customers to
decrease their usage.
UEC has a policy against
discussing specifi c cus-
tomers. But anyone pay-
ing attention to Hermis-
ton, Umatilla and the Port
of Morrow can guess that
much of UEC’s growth is
likely driven by new Ama-
zon data centers spring-
ing up around Umatilla and
Morrow counties, as well
as a few other major indus-
trial projects such as the new
Lamb Weston expansion in
Hermiston.
In its 2008 annual report,
UEC reported that industrial
customers made up 24.7%
of its revenue. In 2018, that
number was up to 64.2%.
Echenrode said resi-
dential sales in the past
eight years have increased
2.5%. Irrigation sales have
increased 19%, small com-
mercial sales are up 27%,
HH fi le photo
A substation technician installs a ground wire on a riser structure in December 2017 at a new
Umatilla Electric Cooperative substation on East Elm Avenue in Hermiston.
and large commercial/indus-
trial sales are up 500%.
Such a large increase
in industrial use to UEC’s
system naturally brings up
questions about who is pay-
ing for that growth. Echen-
rode said while many coop-
eratives build some money
for growth into everyone’s
fees, UEC’s philosophy is
that if it needs to build new
lines or other infrastruc-
ture to accommodate a spe-
cifi c customer, it is that cus-
tomer that should foot the
bill instead of all UEC’s
customers.
“Those who trigger the
growth, pay for the growth,”
he said.
Power costs
While equipment, infra-
structure and personnel to
serve customers are a part
of UEC’s costs, purchasing
electricity from suppliers
takes up most of the coop-
erative’s budget. In 2018,
76.6% of UEC’s expendi-
tures were for wholesale
power.
Much of that power
comes from the federally
owned Bonneville Power
Administration, which sells
electricity from 31 dams, a
nuclear power plant and sev-
eral small nonfederal power
plants.
In 2011, UEC signed a
20-year purchasing con-
tract with BPA, after BPA
changed its rate structure.
Demand for BPA’s power
was outstripping supply, and
so BPA calculated a “high
water mark” for utilities.
The complicated formula
used the amount of power
BPA is able to produce in
its lowest-performing years
(when dry weather means
low stream fl ows through
hydroelectric dams) and the
utilities’ usage pre-2010.
Each utility was then
assigned an amount of power
it could purchase from BPA
at “Tier 1” rates, which BPA
would set at cost. Any power
the utility needed beyond
that amount would be con-
sidered “Tier 2” power, to be
purchased at market rates.
In high-water years, BPA
would sell its excess power
into the market and use the
profi ts to keep Tier 1 prices
low.
“The assumption at the
time was that power costs
were going up,” Echenrode
said.
Power costs in the mar-
ket didn’t go up, however.
Instead they dropped, due to
a confl uence of factors that
included fracking causing
natural gas to drop to a frac-
tion of its previous price.
Rapid growth in Herm-
iston and surrounding areas
has pushed UEC well into
needing Tier 2 power for its
newer customers each year,
but Echenrode said it so far
hasn’t hurt them — the mar-
ket price is actually lower
than BPA’s Tier 1 prices.
“Nobody would have
ever thought of that when
the contracts were signed in
(2011),” he said.
UEC’s contract with BPA
is up in 2028, but Echenrode
said that he expected they
would be purchasing power
from BPA well beyond that.
“They’ve been very good
to us, and very good to our
customers,” he said.
Renewable energy
Echenrode said it was
hard to know what market
rates for power would do
in the future, particularly
as more states enact laws
around renewable energy
and cap and trade.
Oregon Democrats are
trying to pass cap-and-trade
legislation of their own,
which Echenrode said will
“likely have a cost.”
In 2016 the legislature
passed a law requiring inves-
tor-owned utilities to get
at least 50% of their power
from renewable sources by
2040, and consumer-owned
utilities such as UEC to must
get to at least 25%. The law
does not include existing
hydropower from dams as
a renewable source, because
lawmakers stated the intent
was to encourage creation
of new renewable energy
sources.
Echenrode said the mar-
ket
“may
demonstrate
renewables are less expen-
sive over time,” or the law
may force UEC to purchase
more expensive electricity.
Compliance is shown
through Renewable Energy
Certifi cates, and Echenrode
said UEC has been build-
ing those up now to protect
it from spikes in the market.
Despite some uncertainty
about the future of the mar-
ket, Echenrode said UEC
is bound to serve all cus-
tomers in its service area,
and he believes that over-
all the area’s growth is
good for residents. The
growth, for example, has
helped pay for new equip-
ment to serve customers,
and enabled improvements
such as UEC burying miles
of lines on Weston Mountain
to decrease fi re hazards.
After BPA recently
announced an increase in its
prices, UEC will be adjust-
ing its rates by about 2%
in 2020, Echenrode said —
something the utility will
send more information to
customers about later this
month.
For customers wor-
ried about their personal
or business electric bill, he
said, UEC works hard to
help people increase their
energy effi ciency through
free home energy audits,
low-cost loans, cash rebates,
weatherization and more.
Information about those
programs can be found at
www.umatillaelectric.com/
energy-effi ciency.
“The cheapest kilowatt
hour is the kilowatt hour you
save,” Echenrode said.
Police seek missing Hermiston woman Oregon ends use of
HERMISTON HERALD
The Hermiston Police
Department is investigat-
ing the disappearance of a
woman who hasn’t been
seen by friends or family
since November 8.
Graciela Garcia, 49, of
Hermiston, owns and oper-
ates Careyes Beauty Salon
out of her residence on 298
E. Hurlburt Ave.
According to her daugh-
ter, Anabel Coria, she had
recently moved her busi-
ness to that address.
“She’s had her business
a long time, and has lived
Contributed photo
Graciela Garcia, 49, of
Hermiston, was last seen on
November 8.
Boardman crash
injures St. Paul
superintendent
for traffi c caused by a previ-
ous accident near milepost
The superintendent of 162 when a Ford pickup
the St. Paul School District driven by Wehrli collided
was injured in a two-vehicle into the back of the trailer
crash on Interstate
at highway speed,
84 outside Board-
according to the
man on Saturday
Oregon State Police.
afternoon.
Wehrli was inca-
According to a
pacitated at the
statement from the
scene, and was
St. Paul Middle and
fl own by LifeFlight
Wehrli
High School princi-
to Kadlec Regional
pal, Patrick Schrader,
Medical Center in
Joseph Mark Wehrli was Kennewick, Wash., with
on the way home from the serious injuries. He has bro-
OSAA football state cham- ken bones in his left leg and
pionships at Hermiston High hip, according to Schrader.
School, where Heppner beat His dog was in the truck at
St. Paul to win the 2A title.
the time of the crash but was
A commercial truck and not hurt.
trailer driven by Liviu Aurel
The crash blocked the
Czegledi, 44, of Portland, freeway for 2-1/2 hours. No
was slowed in the right lane citations were issued.
HERMISTON HERALD
here all her life,” Coria
said. “We don’t really
know much, where she
went or who could have
taken her.”
Coria and her family
are asking people to share
any information regard-
ing where Garcia may have
been seen on November 8
with the Hermiston Police
Department.
According to Hermiston
Police Chief Jason Edmis-
ton, the ongoing investiga-
tion was opened three days
after Garcia went missing,
on November 11.
“We are actively investi-
gating this case, and detec-
tives are continuing to work
on this,” he said.
He said there are no
confi rmed details avail-
able about exactly where or
when Garcia was last seen.
A
missing
poster,
which has been circulat-
ing on local social media,
describes Garcia as about
5-foot-4-inches tall and 140
pounds.
Anyone who might have
information regarding Gar-
cia is encouraged to call the
Hermiston Police Depart-
ment at 541-567-5519.
driver license and
ID address stickers
HERMISTON HERALD
When Oregon residents
update their addresses with
the Department of Motor
Vehicles, they will no lon-
ger be required to apply
a sticker on their driver’s
license, permit or ID card
as of Jan. 1.
The DMV will no lon-
ger mail labels with new
addresses on changes of
addresses received after
Dec. 31.
Ending the use of
address stickers is esti-
mated to save $550,000 a
year in printing and post-
age costs. That savings will
go into the State Highway
Fund to support local and
state roads.
Oregon law requires
driver’s license, permit
and ID card holders to fi le
a change of address with
DMV within 30 days of
moving to a new address
within Oregon.
Until this law change,
Oregon was one of only
three states that required
cardholders to place a
new address sticker on a
license, permit or ID card.
Hermiston Warming
Station opens for the season
HERMISTON HERALD
The Hermiston Warm-
ing Station is now open.
Director Teesie Hill had
said in November the sta-
tion’s opening could be
delayed due to lack of vol-
unteers, but the shelter was
able to get enough volun-
teers to open for the season
last Wednesday.
The warming sta-
tion is in a house at 1075
S. Highway 395, across
from Tower Apartments. It
will be open each evening
through the end of Febru-
ary. Check-in for guests is
from 7:30-9 p.m. Families
are allowed.
The Hermiston Warm-
ing Station takes donations
of items to benefi t guests.
For a list of possible items
and how to donate, see the
holiday giving guide on
page A1.
Thurs. Dec 12 th To Sat. Dec 14 th
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Clearance with items
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Eastern Oregon Mobile Slaughter
541-567-2011
253 W. Hermiston Avenue, Hermiston
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589 Northwest 11th St.
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