Seattle City Light
 |
|
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | 1905: The first municipally owned hydro facility, Cedar Falls, begins generating power for Seattle |
| Type | Electric utility |
| Jurisdiction | City of Seattle and some outlying communities |
| Headquarters | Municipal Tower, 700 Fifth Avenue, Seattle, Washington, United States |
| Employees | 1,872 |
| Agency executive |
|
| Website | http://www.seattle.gov/light |
Seattle City Light is the public utility providing electrical power to Seattle, Washington, US, and parts of its metropolitan area, including all of Shoreline and Lake Forest Park and parts of unincorporated King County, Burien, Normandy Park, Seatac, Renton, and Tukwila. Seattle City Light is the 10th largest public utility in the United States and the first municipal utility in the US to own and operate a hydroelectric facility.
Seattle City Light is a department of the City of Seattle and is governed by Seattle City Council. Currently, Seattle City Council Member Kshama Sawant heads the committee that oversees Seattle City Light.
The approximately 776,336 residents (422,810 metered customers) served by Seattle City Light use about 9,157,494 megawatt-hours annually. Seattle City Light was the first electric utility in the nation to become greenhouse gas neutral (2005) and has the longest running energy conservation program in the country. The utility owns a large portion of its generation, which is predominately hydro, so is able to offer some of the country's lowest rates to its customers (of utilities in urban areas). Seattle City Light's customer breakdown shows 381,419 residential customers who consumed 2,914,563 megawatt-hours of electricity in 2015 and 41,391 non-residential customers that consumed 6,242,931 megawatt-hours.
Public responsibility for electrical energy in Seattle dates to 1890 with creation of the Department of Lighting and Water Works. In 1902, Seattle voters passed a bond issue to develop hydroelectric power on the Cedar River (Washington) under the administration of the Water Department. Electricity from this development began to serve Seattle in 1905. A City Charter amendment in 1910 created the Lighting Department. Under the leadership of Superintendent James D. Ross, the department developed the Skagit River Hydroelectric Project, which began supplying power in 1924. Both public and private power were supplied to Seattle until 1951 when the City purchased the private electrical power supply operations, making the Lighting Department the sole supplier. The Boundary Project in northern Washington began operation in 1967 and currently supplies over half of City Light's power generation. Approximately ten percent of City Light's income comes from the sale of surplus energy to customers in the Northwest and Southwest. The current name of the agency was adopted in 1978 when the Department was reorganized.
...
Wikipedia