In November, residents of Kitsap County in the U.S. state of Washington will vote on whether the local utility Kitsap PUD could take over the county’s electricity service. Today, that service is provided by the private company Puget Sound Energy (PSE). The PUD board of commissioners decided to bring the measure to a vote on Tuesday after public hearings held amid a wave of complaints from residents about rapidly rising electricity bills.
A PUD, or Public Utility District, is a special form of local government in Washington state, created by law in 1931 at the request of county residents. Such a district may provide any utility services—electricity, water, sewer, garbage pickup, and communications. The law does not limit a PUD to a single line of business, meaning Kitsap PUD can legally pursue the role of electricity provider even while it remains the operator of water, sewer, and communications. To do so, all that is required is for residents of the county to approve, via referendum, a study and the creation of a public power utility; moreover, under Washington law, a PUD also has the right to forcibly buy out a private company’s infrastructure within its territory (eminent domain).
It’s important to understand: approving the initiative does not mean an immediate switch to a new system. It only allows the PUD to conduct a feasibility study to evaluate costs for consumers and gives the county the authority for a potential transition in the future. PUD officials stress that the vote is only another step in a long process, and that residents will ultimately decide whether to continue. PSE, by contrast, believes residents are being asked to effectively sign a blank check, and that municipal power may not be cheaper.
Rising rates across the country have fueled public campaigns to bring electricity supply under local government control. Energy companies typically resist this scenario, warning about the high costs of transition, and PSE is no exception: it has already opposed similar efforts in other counties in the state. A telling example is Jefferson County, where in 2008 residents narrowly—by 53.3%—approved the county replacing PSE as the electricity provider. Service began about five years later; it is believed that the effort succeeded in part because PSE spent less money fighting the initiative than in other counties.
In Kitsap, the scale of a potential switch is significant: the PUD currently serves about 18,000 households with water, sewer, and communications, while PSE supplies electricity to 133,000 county customers. Last week, more than 300 people turned up for the PUD hearing; among those who spoke was the state’s deputy attorney general, who discussed PSE’s current rate case. The company is asking the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (UTC) to approve a 29% rate increase over three years.
The UTC is a state regulator that oversees private utility monopolies, including PSE. The company cannot raise rates on its own: it files an application with the UTC, after which public hearings are held, cost evidence is examined, and a decision is made—either approve the increase in full, approve it in part, or reject it. Many residents and activists, however, believe the UTC is too lenient toward companies and allows increases that unduly burden households. As a result, the November referendum in Kitsap can be seen as a direct response to the regulator’s decisions: people are frustrated by years of rate hikes approved by the UTC, and they are looking for an alternative to a private monopoly.
If the increase is approved, the average bill would rise by $28 per month in 2027, by $7 in 2028, and by about $16 in 2029. Since 2020, PSE rates have already doubled, and in the last two years they have risen by 45%. The average consumer using 800 kWh per month now pays about $160, up from about $110. At the same time, owners of larger or older homes pay significantly more.
There are several reasons prices have gone up: inflation, increased competition in the wholesale electricity market, a sharp rise in demand during cold and hot periods, aging infrastructure, and wildfires. Another factor is that PSE must comply with the state’s climate laws and shift to clean energy, which requires major investment. The main one is the 2019 Clean Energy Transformation Act (CETA): it requires PSE to fully phase out coal generation by 2025, raise the share of clean energy to 80% by 2030, and move to 100% carbon-free energy by 2045. The second key law is the 2021 Climate Commitment Act (CCA), which creates a cap-and-invest system: companies are required to buy CO₂ emission allowances at auctions, and those costs are built into rates. Meeting the requirements means closing gas power plants, building expensive wind and solar facilities, purchasing “green” certificates and carbon offsets/allowances. PSE includes all of these costs in its rates, and that is why residents’ bills are rising. That is where the dispute has centered: whether consumers are sufficiently protected, given that they ultimately have to pay for these expenses. The November referendum in Kitsap will give residents a chance to weigh in directly on this pressing issue.
Based on: Kitsap voters to weigh in on public power amid high energy costs