I have a feeling that the leadership of the Chelan and Douglas County PUDs with hydroelectric dams have some relationship with the third-parties that are trading that electricity.
It would explain why there are several rebate offers from Chelan County PUD to decrease energy use. It would explain why there is an increased rate for specific industries — like #bitcoin #mining. It all adds up to more energy available to be sold to third-parties and traded at profit.
Balancing the grid with bitcoin mining could be a more efficient use of the energy. I need to do further research.