OPALCO leadership, years of financial mismanagement, and entrenched tenure
||| FROM RIKKI SWIN |||
I am writing as a concerned OPALCO member to directly question the Board President, the entire Board of Directors, and the General Manager regarding the co-op’s persistent pursuit of costly and questionable initiatives, including microgrid installations and other eccentricities such as a tidal power project and the purchase and operation of a broadband communications company.
OPALCO stated justifications for the energy projects—enhanced resilience and decarbonization—do not withstand close scrutiny. OPALCO has experienced no submarine power cable interruption since 1965, and recent outages have stemmed from mainland transmission issues or storms, not local cable failures. Even if a disruption occurred, the paused Bailer Hill microgrid is designed only for short-term (hours-long) backup to a limited set of critical facilities: PeaceHealth Peace Island Medical Center, the main San Juan Island fire station, the Friday Harbor Airport, and water treatment plant—most of which already have reliable diesel generators. The existing Decatur Island microgrid has been criticized by many members as visually intrusive and, at best, capable of supplying less than 1/2 the island homes for only a few hours! It has no payback – ever*!
Furthermore, OPALCO claims of pursuing carbon-free energy ring hollow when OPALCO’s primary supplier, Bonneville Power Administration, delivers power that is already overwhelmingly renewable (90%) and 100% carbon-free (90% hydro-based and 10% nuclear)**. Pouring member funds into local solar microgrids and exploratory tidal pilots will not reduce emissions beyond what we already achieve, yet it drives up rates in an already expensive island grid. (We pay roughly double what our neighbors pay*).
This pattern of questionable spending traces directly to the 2015 acquisition of Rock Island Communications, which coincides with nine consecutive years of operational losses* on the electric side and substantial rate increases for kilowatt-hours—placing ever-heavier financial pressure on members. Meanwhile, the General Manager (in the role since 2014, over 11 years) has received inordinately high total compensation ($792,000 in 2024 per OPALCO’s own IRS Form 990)*, far exceeding norms. And several directors (including representatives from Districts 3 and 4) exceeding a decade, and others with 5–8 years or more—this entrenched leadership has created persistent financial challenges and prioritized ventures that have not delivered benefits to members. (Note there are only 7 total board members)
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- Current Makeup
- General Manager 11 years (since 2014)
- President 15 years (since 2011)
- District 3 13 years (since 2013)
- District 4 13 years (since 2013)
- District 1 8 years (since 2018)
- District 3 5 years (since 2021)
These ventures—past and present—raise serious questions about stewardship and priorities. Grants may offset some costs, but ratepayers ultimately bear the risks, maintenance, and long-term consequences. I respectfully request that the Board President, the Board of Directors, and the General Manager immediately cease advancement of microgrid and similar projects, conduct a full independent financial and strategic review (including the ongoing impact of the broadband subsidiary), and hold a member referendum before committing further resources to any non-essential spending.
OPALCO is a cooperative—owned by us, the members—not a platform for unchecked spending or experimentation. We deserve transparent, prudent leadership that prioritizes affordability and core reliability over costly ventures that have coincided with years of losses* and rate hikes*. Kindly explain yourselves fully in direct member communications, or make way for fresh leadership that truly serves the membership.
*Accounting terms (mumbo jumbo) allows them to cleverly disguise terms they use for reporting – thus creating frequent misconceptions by non- accounting aware everyday people (us) . It’s legal but it’s misleading (intentional?)
** Percentages rounded
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Rkki , While I agree with some of what you have written, allow me to correct a few things. There have been submarine outages since 1965. This brings up the fact that the submarine cables are approaching the end of their life span and will need costly replacement, hence the need to start building financial reserves. Bonneville Power does provide a lot of carbon free electricity; BUT THEY ARE TAPPED OUT NOW. There is no more building of power generation plants to provide the renewable energy that everyone expects now, and to address future demands. They talk about future brownouts. People, Bonneville has been warning about this for a while, which is why they have been pushing the local power companies to help with providing power capacity. Thus OPALCO is trying to build solar generation in the islands. I understand the Douglas Rd solar has met with resistance, but agri-solar is a net positive to pursue. It has worked so well in other locations that I have applied to OPALCO to study my fields in front of my house on Orcas as a site.
Now I agree their public relations and interaction with their members is more corporate than co-op, which has been a growing disease among power co-ops for years. Now is the time to get serious about power generation, not when the lights go dark.
Rikki,
We look forward to addressing these topics at the OPALCO town hall this week and appreciate members engaging on these important issues.
OPALCO is a member-owned cooperative, and we welcome members to stay involved in the many ways available—attending Board meetings, reviewing Board materials, voting in elections, following our communication channels, and participating in events throughout the year. These opportunities help provide context on the complex challenges the co-op is navigating now and into the future.
The OPALCO Board is made up of our neighbors who spend a significant amount of time and expertise to steward the co-op on behalf of all members. Like many utilities, we face difficult decisions that involve tradeoffs, and there are no simple solutions. We hope members will join us at Board meetings, events, and/or the upcoming town hall to learn more, ask questions, and be part of the conversation.
John,
1. BPA’s PositionThe Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) is not warning OPALCO or any of its customers or encouraging them to build local (distributed or behind-the-meter) power generation, such as rooftop/community solar or tidal energy projects. BPA, as a wholesale power provider, primarily markets hydroelectric power and focuses on regional resource adequacy—the ability to meet long-term energy demand. Recent BPA analyses (including the 2024 Resource Program) highlight the need for additional resources beyond energy efficiency, potentially including BPA acquiring new capacity or integrating large-scale renewables. There is no evidence in BPA’s official materials or recent announcements of direct encouragement for customers (public utilities and co-ops) to develop local solar or tidal generation.
2. OPALCO’s Solar Ventures OPALCO’s solar + storage ventures are expensive relative to their limited output and primarily provide short-duration backup, not meaningful baseload generation.
The Decatur Island microgrid (solar completed 2018; battery 2021) total capital cost: ~$3.16 million.
Cost breakdown (approximate):
Solar PV system → $828,000 (fully funded by ~270 community solar participants).
Battery system (1 MW / 2.6 MWh) → $1.5 million.
Installation, electrical, site/civil, overheads, sales tax, and contingency → ~$830,000.
Funding:
Community participants ($828,000)
Washington State Clean Energy Fund grant (~$1 million)
OPALCO ratepayers (remainder ~$1.3-1.4 million)
Capability: Decatur is a small island with low load (70 full time) and it is estimated that the existing microgrid could supply less than 1/2 the homes for hours not days.
The Bailer Hill microgrid project on San Juan Island (multi-million dollar, ~$5M+ estimated; still in planning/permitting) is a community solar (~3 MW) + battery storage site focused on local renewable offset, agri-solar (sheep grazing), and general county-wide resiliency/microgrid benefits. As part of its justification OPALCO has cited supply to critical facilities, i.e. The Main Fire Station, Peace Island Hospital, water treatment plant, and airport). 3 of these facilities already have diesel back up. Bailer Hill would provide only short-duration supply (hours).
3. Solar Feasibility in the Islands Solar is a popular concept but highly challenging and impractical as a primary source at our latitude due to strong seasonal variation (winter production often 15-30% of annual average) and rising winter demand.
For context, here’s a rough estimate for supplying the town of Eastsound (population ~5,000, main Orcas Island load center) continuously from solar + batteries alone:
Estimated demand: Peak ~20-30 MW (Orcas Island’s share of county-wide ~88 MW peak); average ~8-10 MW; annual energy ~70-90 GWh.
Solar array required: ~50-70 MW (to match annual energy at ~1.1-1.5 GWh/MW/year local benchmarks).
Physical size (solar): ~300-500 acres (realistic island density ~6-8 acres/MW due to terrain).
Battery storage: ~200-300 MWh (for daily/overnight shifting; seasonal deficits would require vastly more).
Physical size (batteries): ~2-5 acres.
Estimated cost: $120-200+ million (solar ~$1.2-1.5M/MW adjusted for location; batteries ~$300-400/kWh; pre-incentives, excludes land/transmission/O&M). This would still face major winter shortfalls without huge overbuild or hybrids.
4.Secondary Cable and Outages I agree it’s time to add a secondary submarine cable for true backup and growing demand. But cut out the half-baked (pun intended) solar nonsense and stop spending all this time and money in the meantime. BTW, the only major submarine cable outages since the mid-1960s have been communications/fiber (not power) – historical power cable failures ended after 1960s upgrades.
Krista, Thank You but I’ve been asking questions and making comments for weeks now and you or the board or GM could start with answers in this public forum. It would be a way of reaching people that don’t do zoom meetings. Not everyone does. Thanks, rikki
Rikki, I know it is popular and easy to belittle solar at our latitude, but I generate 75% of my own power on a year over year basis for the last 11 years I’ve had solar on my roof. Solar has never been slated as a complete replacement for 24hr power, but as a clean, reliable, consistent, regenerative power source that is available now.
John,
Great that you’re able to cover 75% of your needs with rooftop solar—congratulations on making it work for your household over the past 11 years.
For the rest of us, though, the numbers don’t add up. I’ve twice seriously investigated installation—once with the previous owners of Rainshadow Solar when I first moved here in 2010, and again last year with the current owners—and both times was told not to expect a financial payback within the system’s lifetime, given our latitude and rates.
Since we already enjoy reliable, renewable, carbon-free power from BPA, what’s the point? Certainly it isn’t environmental concerns, and since there isn’t any monetary payback, then “WHAT’s THE POINT ?”
If you absolutely demand a degree of outage resilience for your individual home, then get a gas generator. I have one. It came on last year for an hour! However this alone is not a valid reason and does not justify the co-op spending millions of ratepayer dollars on community solar and battery projects that provide only hours of backup for limited areas.
And then there is the environmental impact of manufacturing and eventual disposal (land fill) or cost to remanufacture when performance degrades
Great article. I live on Decatur and am dismayed by what OPALCO said they would do with our already existing microgrid but did not do. My experience is that they are deceptive and misleading at best, and outright lying at worst. WE DO NOT TRUST OPALCO. Since they are a co-op, and owned by us, why have we not had a recall of the entire board, voted for new board members, and fired the entire management team? Their salaries alone warrant termination. I agree wholeheartedly that OPALCO should cease ALL attempts to clear cut the highest forest on the lower portion of Decatur to install a second solar monstrosity. They should cease all of these last gasp projects immediately, propose ways to collectively reduce electric use, and focus 100% on the future need to eventually replace the underwater cable that feeds us all.
I would prefer more solar, tidal, wind and hopefully someday fusion energy. There is a great company here in Washington state in Everett making tremendous progress with fusion – Helion https://www.helionenergy.com/.
Hydroelectric has provided energy without the emission of greenhouse gasses that fossil fuels create. But this has been at the expense of once immense salmon, sturgeon and other fish species populations.
We have now have an imbecile for a President who wants to destroy our progress and burn more coal. We as a species don’t have much time left to turn things around.