Greetings EPUD Customer-Owners,
Kyle Roadman, EPUD General Manager
I’m happy to be writing you after nearly a full year in this job. Despite an extremely busy 2022, I can’t express how grateful I am to lead such an impressive organization. From the staff to the Board of Directors, to all of you loyal and supportive customers, there’s no group of people I’d rather be working for.
Next month we celebrate Public Power Week, an annual nod to the benefits of customer-owned utilities. If you’re anything like I used to be, you may not even realize just how special this public power concept is.
Unlike investor-owned utilities, EPUD is 100% owned by those that pay our bills. We have no profit motive and charge you only the cost of providing service. We’re also proud to be a local organization, with an office by Mt. Pisgah full of employees that grew up around here and love the community.
What does this mean for you, practically speaking? For one, our rates are the second lowest of the seven utilities in Lane County. Compared to the local investor-owned utility, we’re saving our residential customers a total of about $3 million each year. During a time of historic inflation, we haven’t raised our rates since 2019 and have no plans to do so any time soon.
What about service? We’ve invested massively in our system over the decades to help improve reliability. Although we’re not all the way there yet, and I know some of you have experienced your share of interruptions recently, our performance on both outage frequency and duration has never been better.
That said, we’re planning to double down on reliability improvements in the coming years. Last year our Board approved a $35 million capital upgrade plan, and our staff is dedicated to putting these funds to work. Whether through upgrading overhead wire, undergrounding lines, or aggressively controlling vegetation, rest assured that further improvements are coming across the entire district.
If you have any questions or concerns about projects in your specific area, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me directly. I love hearing from customers and would be happy to talk through our future plans. I’m available any time at 541-744-7455 or kyle@epud.org .
Here’s to many more years of service improvements, low rates, and community engagement.
Please stay safe,
