Microsoft Gives $240K to Grant PUD Community Program

Microsoft has made a sizeable monetary donation to assist the citizens of Grant County.

Grant County Public Utility District (Grant PUD) spokesperson, Christine Pratt, says the tech giant earned the money by conserving energy at its operations within the county.

“Grant PUD offers a rebate program to encourage all of our industrial customers to reduce the amount of energy they use. Last year, Microsoft took steps to conserve electrical usage at their data center campus in Quincy. They ended up saving 33.4 million megawatts of electricity, which is a lot. And that earned them a $240,000 rebate from Grant PUD.”

In turn, Microsoft has taken the hefty rebate and given it back to the community through Grant PUD program.

“They can do whatever they want with the rebate money but they’ve opted to donate the money to our Pay-It-Forward fund for community support. It’s used for things like Big Bend Community College, local food banks, technology in schools, and other programs that benefit the community.”

Pay-It-Forward is managed by the Columbia Basin Foundation, who will allocate the largesse to various causes in Grant County, including those designed to help financially-challenged utility customers keep the lights on this winter.