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During the 1930s and 1940s, public utility districts were formed in many Northwest counties. Banded together by a common need, electricity in rural areas, groups of forward-thinking individuals created the public utility districts we know today. Pend Oreille PUD was created in this manner and has provided electricity to its customers for over 50 years at rates that are among the lowest in the nation. Today, Pend Oreille County has another need, access to high-speed telecommunications facilities. While the information super highway is readily available from cities and urban areas, sparsely populated rural areas have, once again, been left by the wayside. Until now . . . Pend Oreille PUD recognizes this need and is prepared to help. Pend Oreille PUD has completed its fiber optic backbone system, a high-speed, high-capacity communication system that has been named the Community Network System. The District is already using the fiber optic line that is installed between Newport and the Box Canyon Hydroelectric Project for its internal data transfer needs. All of the District’s substations are monitored and remotely operated by the District’s dispatch center. The analysis of actual electric loads and energy requirements helps to defer capital expenditures. Data transfer functions between the Newport headquarters and Box Canyon can now be accomplished hundreds of times faster. A telecommunications system used by its customers to contact the District and monitoring of remotely located Automated Meter Reading Systems are other internal benefits of the Community Network System. As allowed by the Washington State Legislature, the excess capacity of the Community Network System will be made available to Retail Service Providers, providing a much-needed link between Pend Oreille County and the rest of the world. The Community Network System helps address one of Washington State’s most pressing problems, the huge gap between rural and urban economies. PUD Telecommunications Bill signed by Governor Locke Public utility district leaders say a new law enabling PUDs to offer telecommunication facilities is a breakthrough for rural Washington. The PUD telecommunications law was requested by Governor Gary Locke and overwhelmingly approved by the Washington Legislature this year. Locke signed the bill on March 24, 2000. Until now, PUDs have been authorized by state law to provide electricity, water, and sewer services. The new law adds wholesale telecommunications to the list. Ned Piper, president of the Washington PUD Association, said that many of the state’s rural communities lack the high-speed telecommunication facilities that urban areas enjoy. He said that high-speed telecommunications is essential to a healthy economy, educational opportunities, access to health care, and other services in rural Washington. PUDs are publicly-owned utilities that were created through the state’s initiative process in 1930. At the time, rural communities needed a way to get affordable electricity. "High-speed telecommunications is the utility service rural communities need today", said Piper. PUDs are in a good position to provide telecommunications because they install and operate communication systems for utility operations. An electric utility might use telecommunications to direct power where it is needed, to detect outages, to read meters remotely, to provide energy management services, or to share information among scattered facilities. Because fiber optic cables and other broadband technologies can carry large amounts of data, PUDs often have excess capacity that they can offer to other users. Several PUDs already are doing just that. The new bill allows PUDs to provide wholesale telecommunication services independently of utility operations. Steve Johnson, executive director of the Washington PUD Association, said he hopes the new law will lead to more choices for PUD communities. "PUDs are committed to offering an open telecommunications highway so that other providers can offer telecommunication services, like Internet access or cable TV", he explained. |