Your PUD

Chelan County PUD was created by a vote of the people of Chelan County in 1936. It delivered its first electric power to a small group of rural customers 11 years later. Today, the PUD provides electricity to all of Chelan County and delivers clean affordable power to major power purchasers serving 7 million homes and businesses in the Northwest. Here are a few other facts about Chelan County PUD.

• Chelan County PUD owns and operates three hydroelectric projects. In an average year, we produce 9 million megawatt hours of power, enough to run a city of 900,000 people.
• Rock Island Dam is both the oldest and newest hydroelectric facility on the Columbia River. The dam and first four units in the original powerhouse were put into production in 1933. Six more units were added in the 1950s. The second powerhouse opened in 1979, featuring the country’s first bulb or horizontal turbine-generators.
• Chelan County PUD is part of the country’s first Habitat Conservation Plans for anadromous fish. Under these landmark accords, the PUD agrees to the very high performance standard of “no net impact” on salmon and steelhead runs passing its hydroelectric projects.
• An innovative fish bypass system at Rocky Reach Dam includes a pipe that is nearly a mile long and up to 9 feet in diameter to take millions of young salmon and steelhead around the dam every year. Most young fish travel through the bypass in about 8 minutes. The bypass was developed through seven years of prototype testing and cost about $107 million to build.
• Chelan County has the most grid-connected solar systems of any county in Washington state thanks to our award-winning Sustainable Natural Alternative Power (SNAP) program. Solar panels are installed at nearly every school and six nonprofit agencies. 
• About 25,000 power poles support 1,950 miles of line to carry electricity to Chelan County PUD customers.
• Chelan County PUD serves more than 41,000 retail electric customers. It's average retail residential rate is 2.97 cents a kilowatt hour.