The PUD serves 270,000 residential and commercial customers north of Seattle, Washington. This is the first suit in which a Washington state public utility district has sued power generating and marketing companies.

According to the PUD, the suit attempts to right some of the wrongs inflicted on consumers during the recent power crisis in the Western U.S.

"We were forced to impose some very significant rate increases on our customers, many of whom are seniors and working families, now struggling just to keep their lights on," said Don Berkey, president of the PUD Board of Commissioners. "We're learning more every day about how Enron and other power marketers manipulated the energy market, so we're asking the court to step in to force these companies to own up to their actions and refund these wrongfully obtained windfalls."

Filed in California District Court by attorney Steve Berman of the Seattle-based law firm Hagens Berman, the suit claims that the power companies conspired to drive up electric prices by creating artificial shortages during last year's power crisis and reaped billions of dollars in unjust profits as a result.

"Our mandate was to provide power to customers at a fair price," said PUD General Counsel Michael Gianunzio. "We intend to prove that these power traders created a wildly cynical scam that drove prices through the roof while cashing in on short-term profits. Snohomish County PUD did everything it could to provide low cost, reliable service for its customers, but found itself in a chaotic market manipulated by the defendants."

Gianunzio added that "These energy traders used many strategies to game the Western energy market, including strategies from Enron with colorful names such as 'Get Shorty' or 'Death Star'. The 'Get Shorty ' strategy involved traders submitting false information in the energy grid to their financial advantage."

The defendants include Williams Electric Marketing (NYSE:WMB), Mirant Corporation (NYSE:MIR), Reliant Energy Services (NYSE:REI), Duke Energy Trading (NYSE:DUK), Dynegy Power Marketing (NYSE:DYN) and Sempra Energy Resources (NYSE:SRE).

According to the complaint, the residents of Snohomish County saw their electricity rates increase by approximately 60 percent as a result of the alleged price inflation.

The complaint states that before the Western energy crisis, wholesale prices for electricity in the Pacific Northwest averaged about $24 per megawatt hour (MWh). During late 2000 and early 2001, wholesale prices ballooned to $500 per MWh, with prices on the spot market recorded as high as $3300 per MWh.

Berman, a nationally recognized expert in class action litigation, states that the skyrocketing energy prices cornered the PUD, forcing it to balance the needs of understandably upset customers and the financial well being of the not-for-profit public utility. "Snohomish PUD found itself squarely in the middle of an economic and political storm," Berman said.

The suit claims that in addition to withholding power in the longer-term markets to drive up prices in the short-term markets, the power companies conspired to set prices, and held those prices by monitoring one another's trading practices. It also alleges the defendants engaged in a series of electric trades designed to artificially inflate electric prices.

The suit claims the defendants committed violations of California antitrust laws, committed unlawful and fraudulent business acts or practices, and violated California's business and professions code.