PUD Manager Elected to Regional Public Power Council (PPC) Board

On January 7, 2021 Mason PUD 3’s manager, Annette Creekpaum, was re-elected to the Executive Committee of the Public Power Council (PPC) for the 2021-2022 term. The 21 members of the Executive Committee are elected by PPC’s member utilities and serve two-year terms. This will be Creekpaum’s second term, holding the position of Vice Chair, Administration & Budget.

During a panel interview at the PPC’s virtual annual meeting, Creekpaum was asked what she felt was some of the biggest issues facing the region in the near future. “Annette acknowledged that resource adequacy is going to be a key conversation around the region. Specifically as more intermittent renewable power resources are introduced to the grid displacing our base load generation.”

The Public Power Council (PPC) was formed in 1966 and its mission from the outset was to represent public power in regional forums on wholesale power issues, provide technical expertise to consumer-owned utilities in the Columbia River Basin and preserve public utilities’ historical and legal first rights to the power generated from the federal hydro system.

PPC has a strong focus in the following energy related issues:

• The Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) ratemaking, revenue requirements and policies.
• Power supply planning and conservation.
• Transmission issues, including rates and potential impacts to the Northwest from federal policy proposals.
• The federal Columbia River Power System and related fish and wildlife recovery efforts are a large component of power rates in the Northwest, and PPC tracks developments in this arena and partners in its advocacy with other regional parties.

In all those efforts, the primary focus for PPC is to create consensus positions among its members and to safeguard and protect the priority rights of consumer-owned utilities to federally generated power at cost.