Meet Kirk Hudson, Chelan Public Utilities District General Manager

For more than a century, Chelan Public Utility District has played a foundational role in shaping the economic and quality-of-life advantages of North Central Washington, delivering affordable, reliable, and carbon-free power to the region. Today, that responsibility rests with General Manager Kirk Hudson, a civil engineer by training whose career at Chelan PUD spans nearly three decades.

Since stepping into the general manager role in 2021, Hudson has guided the utility through a period of rapid change, balancing growth from energy-intensive industries with long-term stewardship of public power. Under his leadership, Chelan PUD has expanded its focus on innovation — from advanced metering and grid automation to workforce development and next-generation clean energy exploration — while keeping affordability and reliability at the forefront.

In this Executive Q&A, Hudson reflects on his path to leadership, Chelan PUD’s role in supporting business growth, and how forward-looking investments are positioning the region for a resilient economic future.

Please tell our readers a little bit about yourself and your path to becoming general manager of Chelan PUD.

I grew up in Kennewick and graduated from the University of Washington with a degree in civil engineering. I worked in the consulting industry for seven years before I joined Chelan PUD in 1997. I served in several roles over two decades. I was managing director of generation and transmission when the board of commissioners hired me as general manager in 2021. 

The general manager position was not originally a career goal of mine as I was mainly driven to understand hydropower and utility operations from a technical perspective. Along the way, the leadership heritage of this organization serving communities in Chelan County inspired me to learn as much as I could about leadership and eventually decided to put my name in the hat for an opportunity to become the general manager. 

Chelan PUD plays a significant role in the regional economy. How do you describe Chelan PUD’s role in supporting business growth and economic development in Chelan County?

Chelan PUD’s mission is to provide essential services to empower the community. Today’s economy relies on an abundance of carbon-free energy. As a publicly owned utility, we’re a key part of economic development in the region. We do that through future-thinking policies and providing safe, reliable, affordable and sustainable electricity, water, wastewater, and wholesale telecommunication services that support business growth. 

Affordable, reliable power has long been a competitive advantage for this region. How has Chelan PUD used technology and innovation to maintain that advantage as demand grows?

For the first time since its dams were built, Chelan PUD is actively exploring long-term energy generation sources to ensure clean, reliable power for future generations. 

In 2023, we partnered with Grant and Douglas PUDs to host a Clean Energy Expo, bringing residents, community leaders and elected officials together with global experts on up-and-coming energy technologies. From that conversation, we began researching the potential for utility-scale energy generation, including solar, wind and geothermal.

Helion, an Everett-based fusion company, emerged as a strong fit due to its small footprint, potential 24/7 availability and low environmental impact. 

Helion expressed interest in North Central Washington because of its power contract with Microsoft. Helion conducted extensive community outreach, including more than a dozen public events. Chelan PUD also hosted “InnovATE” staff forums and met with regulatory experts to better understand fusion’s environmental impacts.

Following extensive due diligence, Chelan PUD commissioners approved a lease agreement with Helion for part of the 400-acre Rock Island Dam property in Malaga last year. The agreement includes a land and water-right lease, along with a potential opportunity for Chelan PUD to purchase surplus fusion energy if Helion is successful and expands on the site.

Chelan PUD is also exploring the potential for geothermal energy by partnering with Hotrock Energy Research Organization, Douglas and Grant PUDs, and Energy Northwest. Together, these partnerships position Chelan PUD to meet long-term clean energy needs while supporting the region’s energy transition.

Chelan County has attracted energy-intensive industries such as data centers. How do you evaluate new business opportunities to ensure they support long-term economic health for the community?

Long before the data center boom, Chelan County became an early gold-rush site for bitcoin mining. Chelan PUD responded by creating strong parameters that provided bitcoin miners a path to service, while managing risk, and protecting reliability and rates. Chelan PUD learned a lot from that experience.

Fast forward to 2025, when Microsoft built Chelan County’s first large-scale data center. Commissioners approached the question of data center growth with a long-term vision in mind. They adopted a set of guiding principles to evaluate new large load requests:

• Neutral-to-positive impact on other PUD customers 
• Maintain reliability, and stable and predictable rates
• Preserve local control
• Achieve a comprehensive and durable framework that treats large-load customers comparably and consistently 
• Manage locally generated hydropower through wholesale energy marketing strategy

From those principals, Chelan PUD established a framework for how we will serve large-load customers through three structured options:

1. Short-term supply: Chelan PUD procures wholesale energy from the market and resells to the large-load customer.
2. Customer choice: Large-load customer identifies and procures wholesale energy, which Chelan PUD purchases and re-sells to them.
3. Negotiated contract: At the Board’s discretion, Chelan PUD may choose to negotiate a contract which may include power generated by Chelan PUD, consistent with the PUD’s wholesale energy marketing strategy. Chelan PUD is not obligated to serve these new loads with hydropower, but if it’s in the best interest of existing customers, we may consider it.

This framework ensures that costs are fully recovered, we’ve protected rates and reliability for existing customers, and we’ve protected the value of local hydropower.  

What makes Chelan PUD an attractive partner for businesses considering expansion or relocation to North Central Washington?

The region’s abundance of carbon-free hydropower means we also have a well-positioned transmission network that can efficiently move energy to market. Chelan PUD is part of the Mid-Columbia trading hub, one of the major energy trading hubs on the West Coast. That represents an advantage for companies looking to generate electricity, like Helion, and companies that want to import energy from the wholesale energy market, such as Microsoft. 

Once they’re here, businesses know that Chelan PUD has a track record of stable rates and reliable power. Also, all of our customers have a say because we’re a public utility, governed by five locally elected commissioners. 

How do infrastructure investments — from grid modernization to fiber and system automation — contribute to economic resilience and business confidence?

Chelan PUD invests in a variety of infrastructure improvements, such as high-speed broadband, that improve the quality of life for residents, and creates opportunities for economic development.

Advanced metering was a significant improvement that has helped us maintain reliability and conserve energy. The two-way digital meters use encrypted, wireless communication to send energy use information directly to Chelan PUD. The meters can automatically detect outages at individual homes and businesses, which enables Chelan PUD crews to respond faster and more efficiently.

Advanced metering also empowers energy conservation on a community scale. Chelan PUD collaborated with a Colorado-based company Advanced Energy Management and Wenatchee School District to create a paid internship program. The Advanced Energy Management program puts Wenatchee High School students at the center of real-world energy efficiency efforts, where they use Chelan PUD's advanced metering data and hands-on facility audits to uncover significant opportunities to reduce electricity use in large commercial and public buildings.

The student interns audited about a dozen facilities, including Wenatchee High School and several elementary and middle schools. Collectively, the schools cut energy consumption by about 26%. At Wenatchee High School alone, AEM students helped reduce energy consumption by about 49%, which will save the Wenatchee School District about $110,000 per year.

The program delivers a powerful "win-win-win." Students gain paid, hands-on experience while developing professional skills such as data analysis, proposal writing, spreadsheet development, and formal presentations. Participating organizations benefit from reduced energy costs and improved operations. Chelan PUD benefits from increased energy efficiency, freeing capacity to sell surplus electricity and helping keep rates affordable for county residents. This program stands as a model for workforce development, energy stewardship, and student-driven innovation.

Balancing growth with community impact can be challenging. How does Chelan PUD approach growth in a way that protects local ratepayers while encouraging economic development?

As a publicly owned utility, our first duty is to protect rates and reliability for existing customers from the impacts of growth and development. We’ve operated under a “growth pays for growth” philosophy for several decades now. I think that philosophy is evident in the way we’ve approached data centers, bitcoin and other power-intensive industries looking to locate here. 

Technology is changing how utilities operate. How has the use of data, automation, and advanced planning tools improved decision-making and reduced risk for the business community?

Starting in 2021, Chelan PUD disabled automatic reclosing in high wildfire-risk areas during fire season to reduce fire risk. That was the right safety decision, but it came with a tradeoff. Reliability in those areas dropped by about 20%, and what used to be brief, momentary blips became full outages for customers. 

We developed a new way to automate our operational settings that balances wildfire risk and reliability. We combine real-time data from weather stations, cloud services, advanced analytics, and our operational systems, to assess wildfire risk every hour during fire season. With fail safes built in, the system automatically adjusts how protective devices operate based on the current risk level, balancing safety and reliability in real time. 

We piloted the approach in the Plain and Lake Wenatchee area last summer and saw a 38% improvement in reliability, while still maintaining strong wildfire risk mitigation. Based on those results, we’re expanding the system to other parts of the county and expect similar reliability improvements. 

It’s a great example of how automation and advanced controls are already changing how we operate day to day, improving both safety and customer experience at the same time.

Workforce development is a growing concern for employers across the region. How is Chelan PUD using innovation to build a skilled workforce and support broader economic stability?

We are focused on providing a safe and healthy work environment for our employees.  We have a strong apprenticeship program that offers training programs for a variety of skilled trades.  

We also are committed to ensure our employees are able to access the latest technology and tools necessary to do their jobs safely and efficiently.  

In addition, our educational outreach programs are designed to provide students an understanding of the careers available here and an idea of the classes and skills they can learn to prepare themselves for future opportunities. 

Public utilities don’t always get credit for their role in innovation ecosystems. How does Chelan PUD collaborate with local governments, businesses, and regional partners to drive progress?

Link Transit is a good example of a public agency that’s using affordable, carbon-free energy in innovative ways.

Over two decades, Link Transit transitioned from a diesel-fueled bus fleet to a fleet fueled by electricity. Link Transit worked with InductEV to develop the nation’s first 200-kilowatt wireless charging system for battery-electric transit buses. Our engineers worked with Link Transit and InductEV to safely connect that system to the electrical grid.

That transition was made possible because of the reliable and affordable cost of energy in Chelan County. Using electricity to power buses saves an average of 35 gallons of diesel fuel per day, and about $500,000 a year in fuel savings for the electric bus fleet. 

What does success look like for Chelan PUD when it comes to supporting a healthy, diverse, and sustainable local economy?

Our mission is to provide essential services that empower the community. As a public power utility, we rely on our customers to tell us whether we’ve been successful in that mission. Customer-owners have told us to prioritize affordable and reliable services. Chelan PUD offers one of the lowest residential electrical rates in the nation.

It is clear our customer-owners want a utility that enhances the quality of life. Chelan PUD offers over 700 acres of parks, many of which offer waterfront access, playgrounds and sports fields. We invested in substantial improvements at Riverfront Park last year, including a new splash pad, community pavilion, and safety improvements along the Loop Trail. Our parks also boost the local economy by drawing in visitors for sports tournaments and recreation. 

Success is also stewardship, which is one of our five values. We responsibly manage all the resources entrusted to us for future generations. That’s why Chelan PUD is one of the only hydropower generators in the nation with habitat conservation plans - one for Rock Island and another for Rocky Reach. The plans commit the PUD to ensure that its hydropower projects have no net impact on upper Columbia River salmon and steelhead runs.

Looking ahead, what economic or technology trends do you believe will most shape Chelan County’s business landscape over the next decade?

AI is accelerating breakthroughs in energy technologies, including geothermal discoveries, fusion research, and grid optimization. These advancements could eventually lower costs and improve reliability, but the big unknown is when they will be ready for widespread implementation. ​

What advice would you give to business leaders considering investment in the region about working with a publicly owned utility?

Chelan County is a public power community. Residents here expect to be consulted and informed about major developments in their community. 

Who or what inspires your approach to leadership at the intersection of public service, innovation, and economic development?

Our history inspires me. Nearly 90 years ago, our community leaders took a leap of faith, forming Chelan PUD with the vision of public power serving generations to come. They made bold, forward-thinking decisions. They didn’t just react to change; they had the courage to act upon it, ensuring that Chelan County would have reliable, affordable power for decades.