News

Public Power by the numbers

Sep 30, 2021

Powerful numbers … As Public Power Week 2021 approaches (October 3 – 9), GRDA is sharing some facts about the benefits public power provides its customers. (Lee Buchsbaum/LMB Photography)

Power for Progress… a weekly column from the Grand River Dam Authority.

In recognition of the upcoming National Public Power Week (October 3 – 9), the Grand River Dam Authority is taking the opportunity to share more information about public power and the many benefits it provides to the 49 million Americans receiving their electricity from a publicly owned electric utility.

Right here in Oklahoma, one in every ten communities is public power. Together, locally owned utilities in these communities combine to serve over 400,000 households in the state. That include residents in the 15 Oklahoma public power communities that purchase wholesale electricity from GRDA and then resell it to their citizen-owners.

It is a process that has been going on in Oklahoma almost since the first kilowatt was produced in the state. In fact, GRDA’s relationship with most of its public power partners are nearing 70 years old. Some of those partnerships are older than 70 years.

What are some of the advantages of public power? Here are a few, shared from the American Public Power Association’s #CommunityPowered information:

• Public power customers pay an average of $160 less per year than corporate utility customers.
• Communities receive more than $2 billion annually because of investments from public power.
• Public power customers get electricity back after an outage 74 minutes sooner than non-public power users.

GRDA is proud to play a part in supplying these benefits and proud to join with its Oklahoma public power partners to keep low-cost, reliable and abundant power flowing across the state. For more information on public power in Oklahoma, visit ourlocalpower.org.

GRDA is Oklahoma’s largest public power electric utility; fully funded by revenues from electric and water sales instead of taxes. Each day, GRDA strives to be an “Oklahoma agency of excellence” by focusing on the 5 E’s: employees, electricity, economic development, environmental stewardship, and efficiency.