THANK YOU TO THE PEOPLE BEHIND THE POWER
From Oct. 2-8, the City of Russell is celebrating Public Power Week along with more than 2,000 other community-owned, not-for-profit electric utilities nationwide.
“This year, we are focusing on educating the next generation of City electric utility customers on the benefits of public power,” said City Manager Jon Quinday. “We are proud to provide reliable, affordable, and sustainable power to the City of Russell and our fifty square miles of rural service area,” said Jon Quinday. “We hope that young people in our community and their families acknowledge this vital service and maybe even look to the utility as a good place to work down the road.”
The City of Russell Electric Utility has operated alongside our customers in Russell and the surrounding area since 1910, when the first power plant was built.
The electric department not only works for Russell, it is Russell. All 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.
With their hard work and dedication, we’ve accomplished much:
- 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.
- Continue work on a ten-year multi-million-dollar reconstruction of the electric distribution system to improve longevity, reliability, and safety for many years to come.
- Began a sub-station maintenance program to identify potential mechanical failures or other issues that can interrupt service
- Continue installation of various components that keep wildlife, such as birds and squirrels, away from critical components.
These only represent a fraction of your utility's work completed behind the scenes.
Public power thrives because we are community-owned and governed by local decision-making, and—most importantly, our staff is hardworking employees like you who care about the community and take pride in serving our friends and neighbors in Russell.