GRAND HAVEN, Mich. — The first full week of October marks Public Power Week, an opportunity to call attention to the benefits of community-owned power.
In honor of that, we are visiting with local utilities in the West Michigan area to learn more about the work they do.
The Grand Haven Board of Light & Power is a five-member, elected Board that manages all aspects of the production, distribution, and sale of electrical capacity and energy.
General Manager David Walters said Grand Haven Board of Light & Power is one of over 2,000 public power utilities in the U.S. and has been serving the greater Grand Haven area since 1896, so for 126 years.
They have 46 full-time employees, serving nearly 15,000 customers and they are the City of Grand Haven's largest tax payer, contributing nearly $2 million per year to their general fund.
Walters explained the meaning of “public power.” He said, as a Public Power utility, Grand Haven Board of Light & Power is community-owned, locally controlled, and operates at not-for-profit rates with electric revenues reinvested back into the local economy.
“Being community-owned means the citizens of Grand Haven have the power to shape where and how our electric utility is run,” said Walters. “Grand Haven is unique in that we have an 5-member elected board of directors. Because we don’t need to generate a profit for shareholders, we are able to invest customer revenue very proactively into infrastructure improvements for reliability, green energy projects and lower rates than customers can get from an investor-owned utility.”
Learn more at www.ghblp.org.
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