A farm in the Horse Heaven Hills near Prosser recently got an electric upgrade that enables it to expand its storage capacity as well as power up future projects.

Sunheaven Farms, the administrative arm of a collection of five family farms, began planning for a new onion storage building at the end of 2024. 

Just as new data centers and big industrial developments require more power, so do smaller-scale projects like Sunheaven’s. To bring the temperature-controlled building online, the farms contacted Benton Rural Electric Association.

“We had power to the area, but not enough power for the draw that the new shed would take, as well as to be able to run all the other stuff that we have and the current irrigation system that we have,” said Howard Jensen, Sunheaven’s general manager.

Power lines in the area were at capacity and needed to be rebuilt to increase the amount of power needed, said Troy Berglund, deputy general manager and vice president of member relationships for Benton REA. 

Members of the not-for-profit, member-owned electric cooperative traditionally cover a significant portion of the cost when they need increased capacity – and this was the case with Sunheaven Farms, Berglund said.

But Benton REA also decided to build the lines with additional capacity for future projects and other members’ needs and covered those costs “because those benefit all of the membership, and not just one member,” Berglund said.

Several members and farms are served through the power lines involved in this project, which cost nearly $2 million, he said.

To bring a new temperature-controlled onion storage building online, Sunheaven Farms in the Horse Heaven Hills near Prosser reached out to Benton REA for a power upgrade.

| Courtesy Benton REA

Power needs 

Sunheaven Farms is made up of five different farm owners, which all operate separately: Robert Munn & Sons, D. Munn & Sons, Brent Schulthies, Clyde Bybee and Brent Hartley Farms.

Jensen said the operation provides irrigation and services for the farms so they can focus on their farming.

The farmers came to Eastern Washington in 1976. Jensen said the farms now are in their second and third generations.

Today, they hold 25,000 acres and mainly farm row crops, including onions, shallots, carrots, sugar beets, wheat, sweet corn, field corn, beans, peas and turf grass seed. 

Onions have the largest acreage and production, with about 12,000 acres grown annually, according to Sunheaven Farms’ website.

Bybee Farms was the primary farm involved in the power expansion project.

Collaboration 

Installation took place mostly through the summer of 2025, and the process had to be carefully coordinated while onion harvest was underway. 

Benton REA frequently consulted with the property owners in person and worked around their schedules to minimize outages and impacts on harvest.

Much of the work involved installing bigger and heavier wire in overhead and some underground power lines, Berglund said. That meant that distance between the poles had to be reduced in some places to support the heavier wire.

In one instance, a particular REA member was affected by the power poles on the property in front of their home. The owner didn’t like the placement of the poles, and Benton REA was able to meet with them to talk through various options, ultimately resolving the issue without delay and keeping everybody happy, Berglund said.

Jensen said that Benton REA was “an excellent partner to work with.”

The whole project was a “win win on both sides,” Berglund said, “and I can’t give enough credit to the relationship with Howard and Sunheaven and their members. And so it was a real example of working together to solve problems.”