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Help the City of Altus and Altus Power celebrate Public Power Week October 7 through 13. Activities for the week will include:

October 10, an Open House will be held at the City Complex, 509 S. Main, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Come by and have free popcorn. See the Wise Owl mascot, and the equipment used in line work and you can questions about Line Construction, Rates, Billing, Maintenance, and Outages. Also on Oct. 10 they’ll conduct the annual safety program for the 2nd graders of Altus. This helps teach the children not to play around power lines.

On Oct. 12 the admission will be free at the Western Prairie Museum, 1100 Memorial Drive. They are open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. At the museum free information will be available on energy rebates, energy efficiency improvements, energy audits and much more.

What is Public Power?

Across the United States, more than 2,000 communities have chosen to provide for their own electricity services by creating public power systems—electric utilities owned by the communities they serve. Your very own Altus Power is one of those 2,000 communities. We are owned by you, the residents of Altus.

Public power utilities are operated by local governments to provide communities with reliable, responsive electric service and are directly accountable to the people they serve through local elected or appointed officials.

Public power today is an important, contemporary American institution. From small towns to big cities, wherever public power exists, it is an expression of the American ideal of local people working together to meet local needs. It is an expression of the local control that is at the heart of our system.

Public power is also a strong competitive force that provides a “yardstick” for consumers and regulators to measure the performance and rates of private power companies. This continuous competition helps all electric consumers, not just those served by public power.

The many benefits of Public Power

However, a public power utility has many distinct characteristics that benefit the consumers of the individual community it serves. These benefits include: Equal or greater reliability, efficient service – lowest cost consistent with reliability; community goals and sound business practices; responsiveness to customer concerns – every citizen is an owner with a direct say in policies; quick response from crews located in the community; greater portion of revenues stay in community; utility purchases from local establishments, including use of local financial institutions, local employment, economic development, tax payments, payments-in-lieu-of-taxes, and/or transfers to the community’s general fund; cash flow of the utility, which may be channeled through local government treasury; opportunity for efficiency through integrated utility operations (e.g., operation with electric & water); local management and operations bring added community leadership for innovation and development; recognized commitment to conservation, safety and the environment; local control over the electric distribution system aesthetics and design; local control that allows matching local resources to local needs; innovative techniques and technology to meet energy needs; and a competitive standard against which the service of all utilities may be measured.