Reliable, safe, affordable electricity is what public power is about, and it’s what the city’s electric department delivers year-round. It’s important to tell our community why public power is the right choice. But right now, I want to recognize the people behind public power who remain committed to keeping our community’s lights on.
All of the city’s electric department employees play a crucial role in keeping our community up and running daily. We can count on our utility director, electric lineman, power plant operators, technicians, accounting, finance, and human resources.
Public power thrives because we are community-owned and governed by local decision-making, and—most importantly, our staff are hardworking employees like you who care about the community and take pride in serving our friends and neighbors in Russell. With their hard work and dedication, we’ve accomplished much:
- Reduced customer energy costs with two rate reductions in the past three years;
- Maintained local generation, which mitigated the effects of Winter Storm Uri on our community - when other communities experienced rolling blackouts, your electric utility kept the lights on. Your non-profit utility is community-owned and not beholden to shareholders; our rates remain unchanged. In contrast, many utilities – public, cooperatives, and investor-owned - have or will raise rates to pay for the increased costs during that winter storm.
- Began a ten-year multi-million dollar plan to improve the longevity, reliability, and safety of the electric distribution system
These only represent a fraction of the work completed behind the scenes of your utility.
Every year, your electric department makes many contributions to our community, above and beyond your daily jobs as we “power on.” This includes providing power to downtown events, like Prairiesta and Bricks, Broncs, and BBQ. Light up the downtown and highways with Christmas decorations, to name a few.
Please help me thank our public power employees? Together we are a community dedicated to family, friends, and neighbors, where generations care for each other. We are One Russell, building a self-reliant future. We are home.