GRDA – Continuing the public power tradition

GRDA – Continuing the public power tradition

When Grand River Dam Authority Chief Executive Officer/Director of Investments Dan Sullivan’s was elected to a three year term on the American Public Power Association (APPA) Board of Directors in mid June, it simply continued GRDA’s tradition of involvement on national electric utility industries.

For many years, GRDA has stayed actively involved with APPA, the service organization for the nation’s more than 2,000 publicly-owned electric utilities. Combined, these utilities provide low-cost, reliable electricity to more than 46 million Americans, including the thousands of Oklahomans who receive their power from one of the municipally-owned electric distribution systems in Oklahoma that, in turn, purchases wholesales electricity from GRDA.

In fact, GRDA is among the nation’s largest publicly-owned electric utilities, according to APPA’s latest statistics. In terms of electric generation, GRDA is currently 17th, ranking just below Austin (Texas) Energy and just above Seattle (Washington) City Light. Both Austin and Seattle, along with other large city-owned systems like Los Angeles, Omaha and San Antonio, operate much the same way that GRDA’s municipal customer communities operate: they sell electricity to city residents at not-for-profit rates. Revenues from those electric sales are then used to maintain the electric transmission system, generate more electricity and help fund other city services like streets and parks, fire and police protection. This public power concept continues to provide important, tax-free revenues for cities, large and small all across the nation.

That is one key reason GRDA stays involved with organizations like APPA, as well as the Large Public Power Council (LPPC), which is comprised of that nation’s 26 largest publicly-owned systems. Involvement in both groups gives GRDA a voice on national policy issues that can impact not only places like Los Angeles and Nashville but also hometowns right here in Oklahoma.

This involvement also allows GRDA to meet the important part of its mission to “be responsive to the interests and concerns of public power users, the communities we affect, and the people of the state of Oklahoma.”

Headquartered in Vinita, GRDA is Oklahoma’s state-owned electric utility; fully funded by revenues from electric and water sales instead of taxes. Directly or indirectly, GRDA’s low-cost, reliable; electricity serves nearly 500,000 homes in Oklahoma and stretches into 75 of 77 counties in the state. At no cost to Oklahoma taxpayers, GRDA also manages 70,000 surface acres of lakes in the state, including Grand Lake, Lake Hudson and the W.R. Holway Reservoir. Today, GRDA’s 500 employees continue to produce the same “power for progress” that has benefited the state for 75-plus years.

The post GRDA – Continuing the public power tradition appeared first on Grand Lake Business Journal.com.