Puget Sound Energy has filed a two-year rate plan request with the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (UTC) for maintaining essential utility services, investing in infrastructure to ensure the safe and reliable delivery of energy to customers and implementing energy, environmental and climate policies in the nation.
PSE will be required to acquire new renewable and non-emitting resources of approximately 6,700 MW by 2030 to comply with Washington’s Clean Energy Transformation Act (CETA).
“PSE is aggressively pursuing renewable energy resources, from large, utility-scale generation projects to energy produced locally and in partnership with the neighborhoods and communities we serve,” said PSE President and CEO Mary Kipp. “At the same time, we must continue to invest in the safety and reliability of our electric and natural gas infrastructure.”
The plan includes investments to advance clean energy and provide safe and reliable service to PSE’s more than 1.5 million customers, such as:
- PSE’s $530 million Beaver Creek wind farm to be introduced in 2025 and provide 248 MW of clean energy to about 83,000 homes.
- Large upgrades or modernization projects to existing facilities, including over $430 million to maintain safety and reliability at PSE’s Baker River hydroelectric project.
- Long term power purchase agreements to ensure reliability for customers as coal-fired generation comes out PSE’s generation supply in compliance with state law.
- Automation programs using smart technology to reduce the length of power outages.
- Circuit modernization programs, such as replacing overhead distribution lines with covered conductor tree wire, helping to reduce or shorten power outages.
- Deploying an advanced distribution management system to support customers’ growing use of electric vehicles and distributed energy resources, such as rooftop solar, to reduce the need for large infrastructure projects.
- Wildfire mitigation and response that includes enhanced vegetation management and infrastructure upgrades, weather stations, AI cameras, advanced safety settings on power lines, and communications and community engagement.
- Extending PSE’s efforts to help its customers transition to more efficient and sustainable home heating and cooling technology, focused primarily on underserved customers facing barriers to electrification.
- Pipeline reliability investments to ensure PSE’s natural gas delivery system operates safely and meet customer demands at times of peak need.
A typical residential electric customer is expected to experience an average monthly bill increase of $7.84 and monthly increase of $13.96 for a typical residential natural gas customer, starting in January 2025, if the request is approved by the UTC. This will increase by $11.20 in 2026 for residential electric customers and by $1.51 for residential natural gas customers.
PSE’s new bill discount rate allowing qualified customers to save between 5% and 45% on their bill each month and another program helping customers with past due balances to be introduced in fall 2024 are included in the rate proposal to reduce qualifying customers’ energy burden and increase energy security.
PSE has incorporated equity in areas ranging from investment decision making, pilot programs, low-income program design, and performance metrics. PSE aims for about 30% of the energy benefits of energy efficiency, distributed solar and storage and demand response programs assist historically underserved communities and vulnerable populations.
The company is proposing metrics covering customer satisfaction, affordability, equity, reliability, resiliency and safety, clean energy progress, load management, adoption of distributed energy resources, electrification, greenhouse gas emissions, and cost controls to help customers and regulators assess PSE’s performance.
