LOWELL, Michigan — Every October, the nation’s public utilities devote a week to celebrate and inform people about the work being done by public power companies.
Charlie West is General Manager of Lowell Light and Power, where they have already had a week full of celebrations. West said Lowell Light and Power has been around for a long time, more than 125 years.
“We serve just over 3000 customers that include everything from large industrial facilities, to small and large commercial businesses, and residential customers," he said.
Lowell Light & Power takes great pride in the work they do for the community. West said LL&P led the way to bring electric vehicle chargers to Lowell about five years ago, and this past year they partnered with the City of Lowell, the Downtown Development Authority, and a local electrician to upgrade the two EV chargers in that community.
“We also support local nonprofit organizations through our benevolence activities,” said West. “With the Pink Arrow football game just behind us, LL&P provides assistance with getting temporary power hooked up and a variety of other activities to support the event. We also work very closely with our local Chamber of Commerce. They do a great job having events that highlight everything that is great about Lowell.”
West explained that LL&P provides assistance throughout the year by hanging banners on Main St, building the stage for the Sizzling Summer Concert Series, and a variety of other activities that help promote the Lowell community.
“We also partner with the local Rotary club to organize a Holiday Lighting Contest each winter.”
In addition to being proud of the community collaboration, Lowell Light and Power is proud of its award-winning service. According to West, LL&P applies for the Reliable Public Power Aware (RP3) award every three years. It’s a national award that recognizes public power utilities that exhibit and embrace industry best practices.
“Currently, we are the recipient of the Diamond level award, which is the highest level of achievement. We first received the Diamond level award in 2015 and we have maintained that level since,” West said. “In 2021, we also received an Excellence in Safety Award. Our crews do very dangerous work and we take safety to heart. Everyone embraces the safety culture of excellence and it resulted in receiving national recognition.”
West said 2021 was also a great year for reliability, as LL&P received a national award for Excellence in Reliability. Last year, West said, “the average LL&P customer only experienced 14 minutes of outages, which is the best year we have seen since we started tracking this metric.”
To learn more about Lowell Light & Power and catch up on their final Public Power Week events, visit them on their Facebook page.
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