Provo City Power hosted an organized celebration of the city’s public power on Thursday, Oct. 3.
The event held a variety of activities such as bucket rides, electrical demonstrations and games where kids, families and participants could learn more about the responsibilities of Provo City Power.
Provo City Power provides energy services to residents and businesses in Provo. The department is the largest municipally owned electric utility in Utah, according to its website. It operates and maintains more than 380 miles of distribution lines, 48 miles of high voltage distribution lines and 18 substation transformers.
"We provide reliable energy services through investing in employees, infrastructure, technology and community outreach," Provo City Power's mission statement reads. "We are proactive stewards of the environment while maintaining our fiscal responsibility to the citizens of Provo.”
Scott Bunker, director of Provo City Power, said these events are important because they allow the public to see what the department does on a daily basis.
“It's a great opportunity for us to interface with our citizens,” Bunker said. “And our board of directors essentially really is the citizens of Provo. They own this utility company. And so, you know, any benefits that we get, we try to return back to them.”
Bunker said that because Provo City Power is a municipality-owned utility, it differs greatly from an investor-owned utility. He said that for many big corporations that own utilities, their sole purpose is to get a return on their investment. But since Provo City Power is not, it is able to bring money back into the city.
“It works out really well in helping us to keep our power rates really low,” Bunker said. “We actually send about $8 million a year of our revenue to the city's general fund.”
The celebration was free to attend and provided hot dogs, drinks and chips to eventgoers.
The event was held in Provo City Power’s warehouse and attracted many families to come to the event and educate their kids.
Ann Adams said her husband has worked for Provo City Power for about 18 years and that they come to this event every year.
Adams brought her grandkids with her and said she enjoyed watching them ride in the bucket truck.
“It’s fun letting all the kids come and do these different things,” Adams said.
Sara Steed, another eventgoer, brought her own kids to the event and said it helped promote community.
“It’s really family oriented and I love that,” Steed said.
There were dozens of stations geared towards kids in order to teach them about electricity, power lines and how to climb a utility pole safely. There was also an emphasis on energy sustainability.
“About 40% right now of all the power that we utilize in our power portfolio is sustainable power,” Bunker said. “We try to be sustainable as we possibly can. You know, it's tough because for every megawatt of power you generate from a sustainable resource like that, you have to have a backup of another resource — because if the sun's not shining, you still have to provide the power.”
Bunker said that over the years they have tried to help homeowners reduce their energy costs and their energy usage. This has developed into multiple programs such as giving rebates to people who turn in their gas-powered tools.
“We will give them a rebate if they turn in their old lawn mower — gas powered lawn mower — and then they can go purchase an electric lawnmower or blower or a snow blower or things like that,” Bunker said.
Bunker said these sustainability efforts and programs will continue as long as the city and citizens will continue to want them.
