History of the Princeton Municipal Light Department

At the June Town Meeting in 1911, $450.00 was appropriated to pay for the 1912 operating costs of the kerosene street lights in Princeton and East Princeton. At that same meeting, a committee was authorized to investigate the construction of a Municipal Lighting Plant.

The Committee recommended that the Town proceed with such a program and was successful with a vote of 96 for and 9 against at a Town meeting held on July 13th, 1912. This vote was reconfirmed at a Town meeting held on September 14th, 1912 by a vote of 88 to 18. A Board of Commissioners was elected and authorized to borrow $15,000.00 to implement construction of the plant. The budget for kerosene was increased by an additional $700.00 at the same meeting.

Thus, began the Princeton Municipal Light Department. A history prepared by Les Poole in 1975 reports that the first full year of operation was 1914 with a customer base of 56, gross revenues of $895.91 and 130 street lights. Seventy six years later, the 1990 data reported 1,393 customers, covering 35 square miles of area with a plant value of $1,640,000 and an operating expense of $1,200,000. The Department and the Town have "come along way" together!

Benefits

The benefits of a municipal light department or rural co-operative are not always readily seen, but are always cost effective and usually the most expedient. Co-operation and cost savings between fire, police, highway and municipal light departments effect much faster response times when necessary. Mutual aid between departments (i.e. light department trimming trees for the highway department and the highway department helping put snow tires on the bucket trucks) saves the consumer dollars. The highway department expense is lower due to our no-cost help and our costs as not as high. Typical items all municipals do for their communities such as hanging banners, innovative street light proposals, bearing the electrical costs and services at town-wide functions (i.e. band concerts & Memorial Day activities) and numerous other unseen or unknown things that your light department does for you are a benefit to your tax rate.

PMLD has provided educational material to the schools each year during public power week and is available for any type of presentation, any time, any place. But perhaps the most important aspect of being a municipal department is local control where local residents are responsible for the policies and direction of the department. The Commissioners are elected by the people for the express purpose of operating the light department. The complexities of the utility business today demand and deserve this type of directed, non-political, attention. You, the consumer, have a listened-to voice in the operation. You receive timely response to inquiries regarding service or for new service. In times of trouble, be it a small house fire or a major hurricane, the department is on the spot to serve you and to restore power as soon as safely possible. Capital improvements to the plant are made right here in your community with your investments. The department is regulated so that it cannot make a profit at your expense.

Recent Events

Princeton is actually positioned quite well, rate-wise, compared with the investor owned utilities in the State — four have higher rates and three have lower rates. This is quite an accomplishment considering we have a very small commercial rate base. Utility takeovers and mergers, transmission access and costs and the Seabrook power plant have all had their effect on Princeton. Even though we are not a participant in the Seabrook project, the repercussions of the problems with that operation have been felt by Princeton. MMWEC, our joint action agency, has been so engulfed in Seabrook issues and law suits that they have not been able to devote the necessary time to other areas of the industry. The systems they had planned for the energy from that plant some time ago made our going to the market for energy difficult. The construction of the wind generation site, though it has been producing economical energy since its development in 1984, has cost the department in terms of paying off the debt of the $550,000. bond issue and other installation costs. These costs are reflected in our rates in the same manner as the Seabrook costs are reflected in our sister systems.

Operating today with a budget of almost $2,300,000.and a staff of six, the department offers more services, accomplishes more work and has less to do it all with than even ten short years ago. The kilowatt consumption has tripled and well over two hundred new services have been installed in that time frame. Approximately 11 miles of primary underground and over twenty miles of overhead primary have been installed while the staff has decreased from over ten full and part timers to six.

By the end of 2005, PMLD provided service to 1,391 residential, 5 Farm, 99 commercial, and 15 municipal customers.  87% of the town’s energy use is due to residential customers.  PMLD customers consumed approximately 16 million kWh of energy in 2005, and the average home used approximately 800 kWh per month.