A History of Public Power in Washington

The story of public power in Washington state reads almost like a fictional epic. Forced by necessity, local people decided to serve themselves with electricity. Armed with perseverance and strong motivation, but little technical know-how, they established grassroots, democratic, home-owned electric utilities.

How did it happen?
Our ancestors dreamed of harnessing light and energy. The dream came true in 1879, when Thomas Edison developed the first electric light bulb, heralding the Age of Electricity. This exciting new age came to Washington on a summer night in 1881, when the steamer Willamette glided into Seattle's Elliott Bay. A strange glow appeared to accompany the ship, attracting much attention on shore. The reason: the Willamette was equipped with the newly invented electric arc lamp. Pioneers of the Washington Territory were receiving their first glimpse of electricity.

This new form of energy became a source of power here seven years before the state was formed. In 1882, the Tacoma Mill Company installed the territory's first generator to provide lights for its mill and yards. That was the same year Thomas Edison opened his Pearl Street Station in New York City, providing the first central generating service to 59 customers. In 1893 the Chicago Worlds Fair gave this new industry a tremendous push by dramatizing lighting.

As the uses of electricity were demonstrated, it became increasingly clear that it would be one of the most important elements in the every-day and business life of the nation's citizens. Early private electric companies were quick to realize that this service was profitable to their stockholders. However, these profits were to be made in densely settled areas-large cities and towns-not in the sparsely populated rural areas. Rates were higher and service poorer in the rural areas. The only way many farmers could get electric service was to pay the private company the cost of building a line for service. The company added the cost of the line to its rate base, and the farmer paid for his line several times when it was built, and regularly through higher electric bills. High rates and poor service were the principal causes of the turn to public power systems.

Municipal Systems
The public power movement in Washington state started with the establishment of city-owned electric systems.

The City of Ellensburg organized the first municipal electric utility in Washington. Ellensburg City Light came into existence on June 15, 1891, when the town took over a power plant build by John Shoudy, founder of the community (the town is named after his wife, Ellen). The town's steam plant energized light globes in some homes and businesses, and a few street lights. The rate was so much per globe, fixed by the size of the globe.

Tacoma City Light went into business in 1893, after voters authorized the purchase of Tacoma Light and Water Co., principally to give the city a better water supply. The City of Port Angeles also established a municipal utility in 1893. Centralia followed in 1895.

Seattle City Light
Electricity came to Seattle in 1886. On March 22 of that year, the Seattle Electric Co., franchised the year before, finished its plant and gave a demonstration. The next day, the Seattle P.I. reported this account: "When the dynamo was started, instantly the room was made brilliant with a clear white light. The clear white light was created by 11 lamps of 16 candlepower each, stationed in the room, and a 30 candlepower lamp in the street." All those lamps gave only one-seventh as much light as one of the modern mercury vapor street lights.

In March of 1902, voters, unable to get good street lighting service at reasonable rates, passed a $590,000 bond issue to establish their own public power lighting plant. The first milestone was reached in 1904 with the completion of the original powerhouse of the Cedar Falls Plant, the first municipally owned hydroelectric plant in the United States. Service and cost were so favorable that citizens asked for city power for themselves. The first residential customer was put on the lines in September, 1905. Later, in 1950, citizens voted to purchase the city properties of Puget Sound Power & Light Co., effective March 5, 1951, making City Light the sole distributor of electric power in the city area. It is now the largest public system in the state, with more than 304,600 customers

Seattle Set Records
Under the leadership of J.D. Ross, the Father of City Light and later first administrator of the Bonneville Power Administration, Seattle managed to set records in many areas. Through the years, construction moved along with the Lake Union Hydroelectric Plant; Lake Union Steam Plant; the Gorge, Diablo and Ross projects; and Boundary Dam. City Light actively promoted electric appliances long before many other utilities in the nation did so, and supplied electric range and water heater repair service, free of charge-a rare innovation in the industry.

Public Utility Districts
Impressed by the successes of these early city systems, rural residents became interested in obtaining electric light, power and water service under a similar arrangement. Washington State Grange leaders studied the municipal electric system and decided to adapt such a pattern to a county-wide system-called a public utility district. In 1927, delegates to a Washington State Grange convention received from a special committee, assisted by then State Senator Homer T. Bone, the draft of a law extending the concept of city light service to a county light area. The convention recommended that the Grange Power Bill be presented to the voters as an initiative. It was decided, later, to offer it as an initiative to the legislature. Thus, the measure became Initiative No. 1, the first of its kind in the state's history. Signatures were obtained by the Grange with the help of labor and other organizations. Although 30,000 were required, more than 61,000 were obtained. When the bill was duly presented to the 1929 Legislature, that body refused to enact the measure, and it was automatically referred to the people of the state. On November 4, 1930, it was approved by a statewide vote of 152,487 to 130,901 and became Chapter 1, Laws 1931.

A Unique Law
That law created by the Grange Power Bill remains on the books as one of the strongest and most unique public power laws in the nation. It is unique because the law provides for the establishment of municipal corporations that encompass the strongest elements of private corporations, rural electric cooperatives and municipal utility systems. A PUD has the basic business structure of a private corporation, with a board of commissioners who serve in the same capacity as a board of directors. A PUD combines the public interest benefit of a nonprofit operation with low cost public financing methods of a municipal system. Third, a PUD incorporates the area coverage concept in utility service, as practiced and promoted by the rural electric cooperatives.

Within two years after enactment of the law, local people initiated action to form PUDs, both county-wide and less than a county in size. By proper petition, decision to form districts was submitted to local county voters. In the years from 1932 to 1940, a total of 32 such PUDs were formed in 30 of the state's 39 counties.

First PUDs formed
The first two PUDs, Grant County No. 1 and Spokane County No. 1, were voted into being in 1932. Both involved only small sections of their respective counties. Neither of these was brought into operation, although the area in Grant County was subsequently absorbed by Grant County PUD No. 2.

The Benton and Franklin County PUDs, as well as Mason County's two districts, were voted into being in the 1934 election. The first PUD actually to go into business was Mason County PUD No. 1, which began serving Hoodsport and vicinity on Hood Canal in 1935. During the latter part of the 1930s several of the districts went into business as REA-financed utilities.

The first county-wide district to go into operation was Skamania County PUD in 1940, ten years after passage of the PUD law. This was also the first PUD to receive a power supply from the Bonneville Power Administration. Following a lull in utility property acquisition during World War II, many districts went into operation between 1945 and 1950.

Several PUDs own power generating facilities. Pend Oreille County PUD was the first district to construct a major dam; Box Canyon was completed in early 1956. Since then, individual districts built, or acquired by purchase, five sizable dams on the Columbia River: Rock Island, Priest Rapids, Rocky Reach, Wanapum and Wells. Other districts have developed smaller power projects
In 1953, the state legislature enacted a law allowing PUDs to form joint operating agencies (JOA). The Washington Public Power Supply System was formed in 1957. This agency of the PUDs built the Packwood Project, put into operation the nuclear steam plant at Hanford, and constructed WPPSS Nuclear Project No. 2. In 1999, the name of the Supply System was changed to Energy Northwest.

A second JOA, the Conservation And Renewable Energy System (CARES), was organized in 1992 to offer conservation programs. After operating for several years, CARES was dissolved.

In the 1990s, many PUDs installed high-speed telecommunication systems for utility purposes. These systems allow utilities to remotely monitor and control utility substations and other facilities, detect and repair outages, read electricity and water meters remotely, and offer energy and water management and conservation services to their customers. Because broadband communication systems can carry a tremendous amount of data, and because utilities must build systems large enough to handle future needs, the telecommunication networks built by utilities typically had excess capacity. Schools, businesses, and others began asking PUDs if they could use some of this capacity for their own purposes. A bill passed by the 2000 Legislature gave PUDs explicit authority to provide wholesale telecommunications facilities to their communities. Today, fourteen PUDs have created community broadband networks.

Thomas Edison achieved his dream of harnessing the power of electricity. Public utility districts have realized the dream of extending the benefits of electricity—as well as water, sewer services, and broadband telecommunications—throughout Washington.