1.5 ERMUSR 05-11-2021 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Municipal utilities seek out their community's input and align their plans with the values and desires of customers. Many municipal utilities make dedicated efforts towards accomplishing long-term goals of importance for their community. For example, ERMU has begun giving residents and businesses the option to receive energy from renewable sources. Also, they have made electric vehicles more accessible to the community by offering rebates on chargers. Commitments to clean energy programs like these are helping move our community to a more sustainable future. Another benefit of municipal utilities is cost. According to the American Public Power Association, private utility rates were 14% higher than public rates on average. This may be partly due to the fact that utility companies are natural monopolies. It is not practical and probably not safe to have two power companies delivering service to the same area. Without competition these companies are limited only by government regulated price ceilings. Unlike non-profits, they have the additional expense of state and federal income tax. Since private companies have an incentive to charge their customers more, public utilities save their community money each year. Quality infrastructure is paramount to good utility service. Cost-cutting measures by investor-owned companies result in lower reliability and compromised safety. On the contrary, public power is focused on providing quality services to their city for long periods of time. Reinvesting in infrastructure is more likely with municipal utilities. The System Average Interruptible Duration Index (SAIDI) shows that public-owned utilities have far fewer power outages during the course of a year. In fact, the average time a customer went without power while using municipal utilities was less than half that of the national average. The failure of utilities infrastructure in Texas this past winter is an example of this and proved to be life 10