The INDEPENDENT, May 18, 2006
Power of the People
By W. Marc Farmer,
General Manager
West Oregon Electric Cooperative
B e -
fore we
get into
Part 2 of
our edu-
cation
i n t o
w h a t
makes
the cost of power what it is, let
me first take a moment to ac-
knowledge the departure and
contributions of two people at
West Oregon Electric Coopera-
tive.
Tom Budge, who has served
on the WOEC Board for 14
years without missing a meet-
ing, has resigned to spend
some time traveling with his
wife. The Board has reluctantly
accepted his resignation as
Tom has been a tremendous
asset to the Board, staff, and
members of West Oregon. His
thoughtful approach to problem
solving, his integrity, and
knowledge will be greatly
missed. We hope you will take
the time to thank Tom for repre-
senting the members in such
an exemplary and professional
manner.
Royce Hagelstein, our CFO,
has resigned to accept a posi-
tion at another utility after 8
years of service at West Ore-
gon. Royce came in and did a
tremendous job in getting the fi-
nancial aspects of WOEC in or-
der and helping us become a fi-
nancially stronger and more ef-
ficient company. His efforts,
knowledge, his integrity, and
his accounting skills have been
a valuable asset here and he
leaves a big hole to fill.
We wish them both the very
best and thank them for all they
have contributed to the Co-op.
The good news is we have
promoted Darlene McLeod to
Office Manager. Darlene has
been here for 22 years and will
take over supervision of our
front office and oversee the ac-
counting department. I am con-
fident that she will do an excel-
lent job for us and congratulate
her on her promotion. We will
be hiring an Accountant to per-
form all of the accounting func-
tions and will have an adver-
tisement in the paper for this
position.
On to Part 2 of our education
process regarding what all
Page 13
Vandehey and Stevens engaged to marry on June 24
goes into the rates we charge
for your power. The biggest
cost comes from our wholesale
power. This is what we are
charged from BPA and PNGC
for the power we use. Power
costs are set by BPA and we
pool with 14 other utilities to
purchase a block of power
through PNGC. BPA sets the
rates based upon the amount
of water over the dam to gener-
ate power, costs of power from
other energy sources, their
costs of providing power, trans-
mission costs, and the ever
changing costs of fish mitiga-
tion. BPA has the ability to
change their rates, called a true
up or CRAC adjustment, every
six months. This makes it very
difficult to set rates and build a
budget not knowing if in April or
October you may get hit with
another increase in our whole-
sale power costs. The biggest
increase came in 2001-2 when
the increased our rates 46 per-
cent in one year.
The most frustrating part of
the bill is the amount that goes
to fish mitigation. The amount
of money BPA spends every
year is approximately $700 mil-
lion and they have spent over
$7 billion over the last 20 years.
How that affects you as a mem-
ber is that over 25 percent of
our monthly wholesale power
bill each month goes for fish
mitigation, related issues and
projects with no end in sight.
The BPA factors we have little
or no control over, but we do
the best we can through PNGC
to influence them as much as
possible. Next issue I will cover
the expense, debt load, and
costs factors.
Erin Machell Vandehey of
Banks and Eric Orville Stevens
of Tualatin have announced
their engagement. Their wed-
ding is set for June 24.
The bride-to-be is the
daughter of Pam and Barry
Vandehey of Banks. She grad-
uated from Banks High School
in 2002 and is currently em-
ployed as a certified nursing
assistant at Tuality Healthcare
Transportation Lab.
The groom-elect is the son
of Page and Debra Stevens of
Tualatin. He graduated from
Tualatin High School in 2003
and is employed in the family
business, Stevens Marine Inc.
Boat Fabrication.
YOU ARE THE CUSTOMER
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503-429-9410
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