Recognizing the value of public power and natural gas utilities

The first full week in October marks a recognition by the American Public Power Association and the American Public Gas Association (APGA) of the benefits of community ownership. 

We are among 2,000 other public power utilities and 1,000 public natural gas utilities in the United States. Public power utilities serve approximately 49 million Americans.  

We are proud to be owned by our customers for nearly 100 years. Many of our employees live and raise their families in the Pikes Peak Region. We understand the impact we have on the community and the customers we serve. There are few organizations that share this responsibility – to provide services that are essential to life, from the time someone wakes up in the morning until they go to bed at night. 

For us and our customers, public ownership means: 

• Citizen-owners elect our governing board, City Council. 
• Utility decisions are made here in Colorado Springs, not by the Public Utilities Commission in Denver or at an out-of-state corporate headquarters. 
• Competitive utility bills: Rates are set only high enough to cover the cost to provide service. There are no profits that go to stakeholders in another city. 
• Reliable and safe service: When an outage does occur, customers are often restored quickly compared to industry averages. 
• Protecting our environment: We live here too and want to keep our city clean and beautiful. 
• Giving back: Employees, their families and friends volunteer more than 10,000 hours each year on community projects. 
• Economic vitality: Employers are attracted to Colorado Springs because our staff and other government agencies work together to make it easy to do business here. 
• Tax-free, low interest rates: Municipally owned utilities can borrow money at a lower cost, which helps keep customer rates low. 
• Four services, one efficient organization: Consolidated functions, such as billing, information technology and human resources, help keep costs down. 

Service snapshot: 

Our electric employees are responsible for operating and maintaining six generation plants, approximately 60 substations, nearly 4,000 miles of power lines and about 240,000 service points. 

Our natural gas employees are responsible for operating and maintaining five gate stations (where natural gas enters our system), approximately 2,700 miles of distribution pipe and about 170,000 service lines.