Princeton Municipal Light
Department
FY2001
Annual Report
Customers
The Princeton Municipal Light
Department (PMLD) thanks all of its customers for their continuing support of
public power since 1912. PMLD is a
non-profit public service corporation, whose primary goal is too provide
reliable and low cost electric service to the residents and businesses of the
Town of
By the end of 2001, PMLD provided electric service to 1340
residential, 96 commercial, and 12 municipal customers. Over 90% of the customer base in Town is
residential. Our customers used approximately
15 million kWh in energy in 2001, and that usage continues to increase
approximately 4% annually.
Service to Town
Beside providing low cost and reliable energy, PMLD
performs many other services for the Town and our customers.
·
Discount the
cost of Town owned streetlights by approximately 17% or $1,500.
·
Install the
annual Christmas tree, Town Common lights and other banners and signs
·
Insert periodic
flyers from the Town Hall in our bills to save postage and handling costs
·
Sponsored
electrical safety classes for our children at the
·
Supported
students requesting help for Science fair projects related to electricity
·
Participate in
Community Reading day at
·
Provide storage
and meeting space for the
·
Install
approximate 30 new home electric services annually
·
·
Manage CDL drug
testing program for both PMLD and the highway department
Rates
PMLD
has some of the lowest rates compared to Investor Owned Utilities (IOU) and our
neighboring municipalities. The
following graph represents what electricity cost you monthly, if you lived in
these electric service territories, based on an average customer energy use of
750 kWh per month.
(SO is “standard offer service”. This applies to customers before March
1998. DS is “default service”. This applies to new customers after March
1998. Neighboring Municipals is an
average of the bordering municipal light plants.)
Over the past 17 years, PMLD has had
only three rate increases. This
represents an average rate increase of only 1.6% per year, less than the average
annual rate of inflation! PMLD’s number one priority is to maintain the lowest
possible rates while providing the most reliable electric service.
Renewable Energy
PMLD’s commitment to protecting the
environment and purchasing renewable energy continued through FY2001. Purchasing renewable, "green"
energy makes a difference in our community. In FY2000 PMLD purchased
approximately 28% of its energy from various hydroelectric power plants. Our
sources of hydroelectric power come from four small-scale hydroelectric plants
in
The Richard
Wheeler Wind Farm, owned, operated, and maintained by PMLD, generated its
largest amount of renewable energy since 1994. This year's wind generation
produced approximately 2% of our energy requirements and generated
approximately 265,000 kWh - the annual equivalent energy consumption of 30
homes. The power plant is 16 years old
and the 40KW wind machines continue to provide renewable energy to the PMLD
community. PMLD will install a new 50kW unit this spring that will significantly
increase the amount of renewable energy we generate.
The
remaining 70% of our energy comes from various sources such as oil, coal,
nuclear, and natural gas. Our competent
planning and financially sound contracts allow us to accurately forecast energy
costs into 2007 and beyond. These are
the driving factors keeping raising fuels costs from increasing your monthly
bills in the form of fuel adjustment charges.
Outages
PMLD spent
approximately $35,000 on tree trimming last year. This significantly improved the reliability
of our electric system. In fact, PMLD
experienced only 6 Town wide outages in 2000.
Prior to the tree trimming, PMLD experienced 26 and 34 town wide outages
in 1999 and 1998 respectively.
Future
PMLD will continue to upgrade its electrical
distribution system, perform preventative maintenance, and explore new services
in 2001. We also plan to purchase the
building we currently lease for our operations.
Please
come by the Light Department and let us know how we are doing. Thank you again for continuing to support
PMLD.
Respectfully Submitted,
General Manager
Board of Light Commissioners:
Bradford Hubbard, Chairman
Scott Bigelow, Secretary
Richard Chase