Public power utilities are community-owned, not-for-profit electric utilities that deliver reliable, low-cost electricity to about 2,000 communities serving more than 55 million Americans. Among the cities served by public power utilities are Austin, Texas; Nashville, Tennessee; Los Angeles, California; Jacksonville, Florida; and Seattle, Washington.
The Large Public Power Council (LPPC) is the voice of large public power in Washington, D.C. It advocates for policies that enable members to build critical energy infrastructure, power the growth of the economy, and provide affordable and reliable electricity to millions of Americans. The LPPC’s members are 29 of the largest public power systems in the nation. Together, they serve 30.5 million consumers across 23 states and territories.
Tom Falcone, president of the LPPC, noted that all power companies, whether publicly owned, cooperatives, or investor-owned utilities (IOUs), are in the same business, that is, to reliably deliver electricity to customers. The big difference is that public power companies are accountable at home. “We’re publicly owned. We are not-for-profit. We are community oriented. We’re mission oriented. And so, our real goal, and only goal in life, is reliable, affordable power—sustainable power—back home at the least cost to customers,” Falcone said as a guest on The POWER Podcast. “So, we’re not necessarily looking to grow loads or grow earnings, unless that’s favorable to our community, unless we’re meeting the needs of our community or lowering costs for them.”
Public power companies face many of the same concerns as co-ops and IOUs. One of the biggest challenges today is rapid load growth, driven by data centers, artificial intelligence (AI), and the increasing electrification of manufacturing and transportation. “The biggest thing is that the load is arriving faster and lumpier, and in a more concentrated fashion, than it has in the past,” explained Falcone.
“Historically, when somebody new came to town, they wanted, you know, 5 MW, or maybe they were really large and they wanted 100 MW,” said Falcone. “But what we have today is folks who come to town and they want a GW, which is enough to power probably 600,000 homes, depending on what part of the country you’re in.”
Falcone said about half of LPPC’s members are seeing this very, very rapid growth. “They could double over the next 10 years,” he said. While the demand for the energy is very immediate, utilities’ ability to build infrastructure is not. “We have to go through the same permitting and public processes, and construction and supply chain, and it just doesn’t allow us to build quite that fast,” Falcone reported.