Frequently Asked Questions

While these may be the ques­tions that come up most often, they are by no means the only cus­tomer queries. If you would like more infor­ma­tion on any top­ics not cov­ered here – or not cov­ered in enough detail – please con­tact us right away for answers. We’re here to help!

KPUD FAQ

Our one-stop con­tact form will get you to the right per­son every time. You can also call the Gold­en­dale Office at (509) 773‑5891 or (800) 548- 8357, or the White Salmon Office at (509) 493‑2255 or (800) 548‑8358.

For most of our cus­tomers your elec­tric rate will not change dur­ing the year. If you are a com­mer­cial cus­tomer who is billed under Large Gen­er­al Ser­vice or a Time of Use Irri­ga­tor, you will notice dif­fer­ent rates, depend­ing on the time of the year. Our cur­rent elec­tric rates can be found here.

Yes, we have rebate pro­grams for a wide vari­ety of heat­ing and weath­er­iza­tion options. If you would like addi­tion­al infor­ma­tion please con­tact us about rebates online or call (509) 773‑7622.

Yes, there are sev­er­al pro­grams in the local area that may be able to offer assis­tance when need­ed. We seek to stay informed of these pro­grams and can pro­vide you with a list of options. Two of the more com­mon pro­grams used by our cus­tomers include:

  • Klick­i­tat PUD offers mul­ti­ple low-income dis­counts to qual­i­fied low income seniors, 62 years of ago or old­er. Dis­counts range from $10 per month to the basic fee ($23.83 + 15% usage), depend­ing on annu­al house­hold income. This pro­gram runs from Decem­ber to May and is reviewed and approved annu­al­ly. To set up an appoint­ment, con­tact Klick­i­tat Coun­ty Senior Ser­vices direct­ly at (509) 773‑3757.
  • All cus­tomers are wel­come to apply for the bud­get pay­ment plan. Klick­i­tat PUD aver­ages your annu­al use to help you bet­ter bud­get your month­ly income.

KPUD col­lects its rev­enues for elec­tric ener­gy deliv­ered to res­i­den­tial cus­tomers in two forms: the ener­gy charge and the basic fee. The ener­gy charge is based upon the amount of ener­gy used. The basic fee is charged because KPUD is required to main­tain the line, main­tain meters, pay for oper­at­ing costs, and make ener­gy avail­able to cus­tomers no mat­ter how much or how lit­tle they use. This is sim­i­lar to a fixed cost in anoth­er busi­ness. It is this com­po­nent of our cost that is being par­tial­ly recov­ered by the basic fee. Anoth­er por­tion of these costs is includ­ed in the ener­gy com­po­nent of our cur­rent rates.

By law, if the PUD pro­vides elec­tric ser­vice to you, the util­i­ty then has the right to enter your prop­er­ty to read and/or main­tain its meter­ing equip­ment with­out your per­mis­sion. You are respon­si­ble for pro­vid­ing clear unob­struct­ed access to PUD equip­ment for the instal­la­tion, main­te­nance and removal of its prop­er­ty.

Even if your home may appear iden­ti­cal to your neigh­bors, hous­es often vary in terms of insu­la­tion val­ues, heat­ing and cool­ing needs, the con­di­tion of the home and appli­ances, insu­la­tion lev­els and the tem­per­a­ture set­tings of the heat and water heater. Your bill reflects the amount of elec­tric­i­ty you use and rep­re­sent the unique needs of your fam­i­ly.

Klick­i­tat PUD fin­ished a sys­tem wide meter update to AMI meter­ing, which improved meter­ing effi­cien­cy. We encour­age cus­tomers to enroll in SmartHub to man­ag­er their account. This includes track­ing usage and sign­ing up for account noti­fi­ca­tions. SmartHub online pay­ment sys­tem is avail­able to cus­tomers 24/7, pro­vid­ing access to your account infor­ma­tion at the times that are most con­ve­nient for you. If you would like your meter test­ed, we do charge a $30 fee if the meter tests with­in stan­dard para­me­ters.

Elec­tric ser­vice will be restored when the cause for the dis­con­nect has been removed and when pay­ment of all appro­pri­ate charges, includ­ing any deposit due from you, has been made.

There are fees to turn elec­tri­cal ser­vice back on if it was dis­con­nect­ed due to non-pay­ment:

•  $30 for stan­dard meter re-con­nec­tions dur­ing nor­mal ser­vice hours (8 a.m. — 4:30 p.m., Mon­day through Fri­day, except hol­i­days), $40 for non-stan­dard re-con­nec­tions dur­ing nor­mal ser­vice hours.

•  $70 for stan­dard meter re-con­nec­tions out­side of nor­mal ser­vice hours (4:30 p.m. — 9:00 p.m., Mon­day through Fri­day, except hol­i­days), $80 for non-stan­dard re-con­nec­tions.

• The fee for re-con­nec­tions made from 9:00 p.m. — 8 a.m. is $200. 

A portable gen­er­a­tor is an option­al source of elec­tric­i­ty dur­ing a pow­er out­age. How­ev­er, a gen­er­a­tor can cause seri­ous injury or death if not con­nect­ed and used prop­er­ly. Use appli­ances that direct­ly plug into the gen­er­a­tor. If the gen­er­a­tor is con­nect­ed to the elec­tric pan­el, a trans­fer switch and state elec­tri­cal inspec­tion are required. Oth­er­wise, the gen­er­a­tor can back­feed into the util­i­ty elec­tric sys­tem, ener­giz­ing sup­pos­ed­ly dead wires and cre­at­ing a dead­ly dan­ger to line­man work­ing to restore pow­er.
A Tem­po­rary Ser­vice instal­la­tion or Tem­po­rary Meter Base is a meter base that will not be used for a per­ma­nent res­i­dence. This meter base is typ­i­cal­ly used for RV ser­vices, well ser­vices, or oth­er non-res­i­den­tial uses. They can also be used for con­struc­tion pur­pos­es as well.
The most com­mon meter bases that we work with are 200 amp and 400 amp. These two sizes fit most instal­la­tion needs, how­ev­er, at times there are excep­tions. If you feel you may need to install a larg­er ser­vice, please con­tact us at (509) 773‑5891 with your instal­la­tion needs and we will dis­cuss your require­ments.  
The cus­tomer may choose over­head or under­ground for their instal­la­tion unless the pri­ma­ry lines (PUD main lines) in the area are already under­ground, then the only choice is under­ground. In the city lim­its of White Salmon and Bin­gen a new ser­vice must be installed under­ground. Some new devel­op­ments do have com­mu­ni­ty require­ments, so you will need to check those require­ments as well pri­or to request­ing your instal­la­tion.
KPUD requires that you pro­vide a copy of your deed or title report in order for us to pre­pare the ease­ment doc­u­ments for your new instal­la­tion. The deed pro­vides us with the full legal descrip­tion of your prop­er­ty, the legal own­ers names and your par­cel num­ber. These are all of the items required to draft a legal ease­ment doc­u­ment.
We encour­age our cus­tomers to enroll in SmartHub to man­ag­er their account. This includes pay­ing month­ly KPUD bill, track­ing usage and sign­ing up for account noti­fi­ca­tions. SmartHub online pay­ment sys­tem is avail­able to cus­tomers 24/7, pro­vid­ing access to your account infor­ma­tion at the times that are most con­ve­nient for you.