By Chris Hill, Director of Municipal Electric Services
PUBLIC POWER
Public Power. What does it mean to you? South Dakota has 34 municipalities that own their own electrical system. To put it simply, that means that the municipalities are responsible for the infrastructure within their city which includes everything from as large as a substation to as small as the meters on your house. Not all of the municipalities have a substation. If your municipality does not have a substation within the city, there is one fairly close and the power would be wheeled from that substation to your city. The Public Power community would also be responsible for the maintenance and upgrades to the system. Like anything else, upgrades cost money and you may see a slight increase in your electrical bill. Well, some might notice as the average person spends a total of 8 minutes per year looking at their utility bill.
comes from, they tend to be more concerned of whether or not the lights turn on when they flip the switch. Some people might notice power lines, or new LED street lights while others are worried if their video games turn on.
Public Power is Chad Collins, Jameson Berreth, and Ashley Rentsch
Public Power is Bob Brattmiller and Jeff Honner
Public Power municipalities are responsible for providing reliable electricity at a rate that is set by the community members. The more I learn about public power the more I realize how much I didn’t know. I also became more aware of how many citizens of public power don’t even realize how much of a blessing it is to have that power. The average citizen doesn’t tend to care where the electricity 28
To me, Public Power is more than all of that. Yes, it clearly encompasses everything that I just mentioned. Maybe it’s more to me because my job depends on Public Power, but as I travel to the municipalities I can see it on the employees faces. They love their community, they love their job, and they are happy to be part of something that is bigger than one person. Sure, people complain sometimes, but if they are upset they have three options. 1. Complain more and see if it fixes the problem. 2. Move to the city that is perfect. 3. Be a person that helps your community to improve by being a positive leader. Sometimes we need to take a step back and realize how great our communities are. We choose to live in our great state. We choose to live in our wonderful cities. Public Power week is October 7 through the 13th. Here are a pictures of South Dakota Public Power members! SOUTH DAKOTA MUNICIPALITIES
