ADVERTISEMENT
Chelan Public Utility District Plans for the Relicensing of Rock Island Dam
Chelan PUD’s Rock Island Dam.
T
he Chelan County Public Utility District (Chelan PUD) provides electric power, water and wastewater services, and broadband to 50,000–60,000 central Washington customers. The current 40‑year license on Chelan PUD’s nearly century-old Rock Island Dam expires in 2028, and the district is already working to consult its stakeholders in preparation for the relicensing process. In this interview, Chelan PUD’s hydro licensing manager, Janel Ulrich, tells Hydro Leader about how the district is thinking ahead about stakeholders, stewardship, and salmon and planning a future that works for everyone. Hydro Leader: Please tell us about your background and how you came to be in your current position.
Hydro Leader: Please tell us about Chelan PUD.
18 | HYDRO LEADER | November/December 2021
Hydro Leader: Please tell us about the history of Rock Island Dam and its licensing. hydroleadermagazine.com
PHOTOS COURTESY OF CHELAN PUD.
Janel Ulrich: I am the hydro licensing manager at Chelan PUD. I have worked for the district for 16 years. I am a chemical and environmental engineer, so I’m possibly an unlikely suspect for someone in my role. Before coming to the district, I worked in research and development, environmental cleanup, and a variety of other jobs. I joined Chelan PUD to assist with water quality for the Lake Chelan and Rocky Reach relicensing projects and to serve as a program manager for license implementation. After that, I worked on analytics, project management, risk management, portfolio management, and asset management before taking the hydro licensing manager position.
Janel Ulrich: Chelan PUD is headquartered in Wenatchee in central Washington State. Washington State has a law that allows the voters of counties to set up public utility districts to provide utility services. Chelan PUD was created in 1936 to serve our rural community, and today we have about 50,000–60,000 customers in Chelan County. We are a large hydropower producer, generating enough power for about 800,000 homes. We use transmission and distribution lines to get that power to our customers and to market. We also have small water and wastewater systems and a fiber-optic network that allows most people in the county to get high-speed internet. We own three hydroelectric plants: Rocky Reach, Rock Island, and Lake Chelan, all of which have Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) licenses. Rock Island Dam sits on the main stem of the Columbia River. It has a nameplate capacity of about 630 megawatts. About 20 miles upstream is the Rocky Reach Dam. The Lake Chelan Dam sits at the end of Lake Chelan near the city of Chelan. There is a long penstock that runs down to a small 60‑megawatt project. We value stewardship. We operate and maintain a proactive fisheries program with a number of hatcheries, and we have a system of recreational parks that are open to the public. We have a five-member board that is elected by the citizens of Chelan County.
