Seattle City Light is the

public utility A public utility company (usually just utility) is an organization that maintains the infrastructure for a public service (often also providing a service using that infrastructure). Public utilities are subject to forms of public control and r ...

providing electricity to

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

, in the United States, and parts of its metropolitan area, including all of

Shoreline A shore or a shoreline is the fringe of land at the edge of a large body of water, such as an ocean, sea, or lake. In physical oceanography, a shore is the wider fringe that is geologically modified by the action of the body of water past a ...

and Lake Forest Park and parts of unincorporated King County, Burien, Normandy Park, SeaTac, Renton, and Tukwila. Seattle City Light is the 10th largest public utility in the United States and the first municipal utility in the US to own and operate a hydroelectric facility. In 2005, it became the first electric utility in the United States to fully offset all its carbon emissions and has remained

carbon neutral Carbon neutrality is a state of net-zero carbon dioxide emissions. This can be achieved by balancing emissions of carbon dioxide with its removal (often through carbon offsetting) or by eliminating emissions from society (the transition to the "p ...

every year since. Seattle City Light is a department of the

City of Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region of N ...

and is governed by the Economic Development, Technology & City Light committee of the

Seattle City Council The Seattle City Council is the legislative body of the city of Seattle, Washington. The Council consists of nine members serving four-year terms, seven of which are elected by electoral districts and two of which are elected in citywide at-l ...

Overview

The approximately 906,595 residents (461,496 metered customers) served by Seattle City Light use about 9,074,062 megawatt-hours annually. Seattle City Light was the first electric utility in the nation to become greenhouse gas neutral (2005) and has the longest-running energy conservation program in the country. The utility owns a large portion of its generation, which is predominately hydro, so is able to offer some of the country's lowest rates to its customers (of utilities in urban areas). Seattle City Light's customer breakdown shows 381,419 residential customers who consumed 2,914,563 megawatt-hours of electricity in 2015 and 41,391 non-residential customers that consumed 6,242,931 megawatt-hours.

History

Public responsibility for electrical energy in Seattle dates to 1890 with creation of the Department of Lighting and Water Works. In 1902, Seattle voters passed a bond issue to develop hydroelectric power on the Cedar River under the administration of the Water Department. Electricity from this development began to serve Seattle in 1905. A City Charter amendment in 1910 created the Lighting Department. Under the leadership of Superintendent James D. Ross, the department developed the

Skagit River Hydroelectric Project The Skagit River Hydroelectric Project is a series of dams with hydroelectric power-generating stations on the Skagit River in northern Washington State. The project is owned and operated by Seattle City Light to provide electric power for the ...

, which began supplying power in 1924. As superintendent, Ross instituted programs to make Seattle City Light a national model for municipal ownership, such as encouraging the use of electricity for home heating, cooking, and other appliances, and directly selling appliances to customers. He staffed each branch office with an appliance salesman, and arranged for

home economist Home economics, also called domestic science or family and consumer sciences, is a subject concerning human development, personal and family finances, consumer issues, housing and interior design, nutrition and food preparation, as well as texti ...

s to give lessons on new labor-saving devices. City Light's program of offering free appliance repair, which began in 1910, was ended by a disastrous drought in 1977 that impacted hydropower capacity. Both public and private power were supplied to Seattle until 1951 when the City purchased the private electrical power supply operations, making the Lighting Department the sole supplier. The Boundary Project in northern Washington began operation in 1967 and currently supplies over half of City Light's power generation. Approximately ten percent of City Light's income comes from the sale of surplus energy to customers in the Northwest and Southwest. The current name of the agency was adopted in 1978 when the Department was reorganized. In 1957, City Light was one of 17 utilities to join the

Washington Public Power Supply System Energy Northwest (formerly Washington Public Power Supply System) is a public power joint operating agency in the northwest United States, formed in 1957 by Washington state law to produce at-cost power for Northwest utilities. Headquartered in ...

(later named Energy Northwest), a municipal corporation, to combine resources and build facilities. In 2014, City Light completed the installation of 41,000

LED street light An LED street light or road light is an integrated light-emitting diode (LED) light fixture that is used for street lighting. Design and style An LED street light is an integrated light that uses light emitting diodes (LED) as its light sou ...

s along residential streets. Installation of LED streetlights on arterial streets started in 2015 and is expected to be complete by the end of 2018. The utility's former CEO, Jorge Carrasco, entered a dispute with brand.com over search result "scrubbing" in 2014.

Electric vehicle prototypes

RT1 (electric car prototype), circa 1970s (16607788918)

In the 1960s and 1970s, Seattle City Light's research and development department developed several prototype electric vehicles. The "Electruc," from 1968, was an experimental utility truck. In 1973 the department converted an

AMC Gremlin The AMC Gremlin (also American Motors Gremlin) is a subcompact automobile introduced in 1970, manufactured and marketed in a single, two-door body style (1970–1978) by American Motors Corporation (AMC), as well as in Mexico (1974–1983) by A ...

to run on electric power. The RT1, developed in 1976, was a

city car The A-segment is the 1st category in the passenger car classification system defined by the European Commission. It is used for city cars, the smallest category of passenger cars defined. A-segment sales represent approx. 7-8% of the market in ...

intended for use in downtown Seattle in a zone where most

internal combustion engine An internal combustion engine (ICE or IC engine) is a heat engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer (usually air) in a combustion chamber that is an integral part of the working fluid flow circuit. In an internal c ...

-powered vehicles would be banned. The RT1 was intended to have a top speed of , a range of on eight 6-volt batteries, and seating for four passengers. It never entered production.

Seattle's electricity supply

The 2016 official fuel mix statistics by the state of Washington for Seattle City Light show approximately 88% hydroelectric, 5% nuclear, 4% wind, 1%

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when ...

, 1% natural gas, 1% biogas.Fuel Mix: How Seattle City Light Electricity is Generated
(information is for calendar year 2016), Seattle City Light. City Light's portfolio of energy sources includes electricity purchased through long-term contracts with the

Bonneville Power Administration The Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) is an American federal agency operating in the Pacific Northwest. BPA was created by an act of Congress in 1937 to market electric power from the Bonneville Dam located on the Columbia River and to cons ...

(BPA). The remaining power comes from a mixture of sources.

Owned facilities

Seattle City Light south service center, 1998

The utility owns and operates a total of seven hydro facilities: * The

, a series of three hydroelectric dams (Gorge, Diablo, and Ross) on the

Skagit River The Skagit River ( ) is a river in southwestern British Columbia in Canada and northwestern Washington in the United States, approximately 150 mi (240 km) long. The river and its tributaries drain an area of 1.7 million acres (690,000& ...

in northern Washington State. The project supplies approximately 25 percent of Seattle's electric power. * The

Boundary Dam Boundary Dam is a concrete arch gravity-type hydroelectric dam, finished in 1967, on the Pend Oreille River, in the U.S. state of Washington. The dam is located in the northeast corner of Washington state. It is operated by Seattle City Light an ...

on the

Pend Oreille River The Pend Oreille River ( ) is a tributary of the Columbia River, approximately long, in northern Idaho and northeastern Washington in the United States, as well as southeastern British Columbia in Canada. In its passage through British Columbi ...

in northeastern Washington State * Cedar Falls Dam, about 35 miles southeast of Seattle * South Fork of the Tolt * Newhalem Seattle City Light residential customers currently pay about 10–14 cents per kilowatt-hour of electricity. Seattle has the lowest residential and commercial electrical rates among comparably-sized cities in the United States.

Conservation efforts

Seattle's Energy 1990 plan bound City Light to meet load growth through conservation efforts as well as increased power generation. City Light encouraged customers to wrap water heaters, insulate attics, adjust thermostats, and weatherize windows and doors. Over 20 years, conservation efforts reduced use by 6.5 million megawatt-hours and customers' bills by $215 million. City Light implemented programs in the 1990s to mitigate the impact of the Skagit dams on salmon runs. Modifying water regulation to ensure that salmon nests remained under water resulted in a loss equivalent to more than $45 million in potential power over 30 years, yet dramatically increased the number of salmon returning to the Skagit River. Conservation efforts expanded in 2000, with increased emphasis on protecting salmon and other species and to develop renewable energy sources. City Light became the first utility in the United States to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in 2005.

Lawsuits and labor disputes

During the late 1960's, City Light instituted affirmative action programs designed to integrate men of color, mostly

Black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white ...

men, into the electrical trades field. These programs failed and resulted in a series of

racial discrimination Racial discrimination is any discrimination against any individual on the basis of their skin color, race or ethnic origin.Individuals can discriminate by refusing to do business with, socialize with, or share resources with people of a certain g ...

lawsuits against the utility. In 1972 Gordon Vickery, the former chief of the

Seattle Fire Department The Seattle Fire Department provides fire protection and emergency medical services to the city of Seattle, Washington, United States. The department is responsible for an area of , including of waterfront, with a population of 713,700. There is ...

, was appointed as the superintendent of City Light by Seattle mayor

Wes Uhlman Wesley Carl Uhlman (born March 23, 1935) is an American attorney and politician who served as the 47th mayor of Seattle, Washington. Early life and education Uhlman was born in Cashmere, Washington. He attended Aberdeen High School, Seattle Paci ...

. At the time, Vickery had been exploring the possibility of running for

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well ...

, and his appointment was a calculated political move by Uhlman in an attempt to forge an alliance with him and prevent a future electoral challenge. In his role as superintendent, Vickery was tasked with reducing City Light's budget through wage cuts and work speed-ups, which proved deeply unpopular with employees. In addition, Vickery hoped craft a successful affirmative action program for women to use as experience that would position himself as a progressive in future electoral ventures. In 1973, policy changes instituted by Vickery, seen by many as draconian, prompted electricians and office workers to stage a work stoppage for 11 days in April 1974 in protest. In 1975, a 98 day

strike Strike may refer to: People * Strike (surname) Physical confrontation or removal *Strike (attack), attack with an inanimate object or a part of the human body intended to cause harm *Airstrike, military strike by air forces on either a suspected ...

by electricians represented by the

IBEW The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) is a labor union that represents approximately 775,000 workers and retirees in the electrical industry in the United States, Canada, Guam, Panama, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands; ...

local 77 became the longest public employee strike in the history of the state. During the strike, supervisors and managers stepped in and were able to keep the system functional, although routine maintenance and new connections stopped. As City Light was unable to be shut down and local 77 failed to gain support of the broader union, and the electricians were forced to settle for a contract with worse working conditions. Seattle City Light lineworker apprentice Megan Cornish, circa 1974 (50271875773)

Seattle City Light lineworker apprentice Megan Cornish, circa 1974 (50271875773)

In 1973 City Light hired Clara Fraser, a

socialist feminist Socialist feminism rose in the 1960s and 1970s as an offshoot of the feminist movement and New Left that focuses upon the interconnectivity of the patriarchy and capitalism. However, the ways in which women's private, domestic, and public roles ...

activist, as a training and education coordinator tasked with redesigning an affirmative action program to integrate women into the electrical trades. Fraser created an all-female electrical trades trainee (ETT) program in which the women were to be given two weeks of physical and classroom instruction and allowed membership, as well as their own bargaining unit, in the IBEW local 77 as soon as they began. Fraser used her connections to the feminist community to recruit women for the program, resulting in over 300 applications for 10 positions. The training was cancelled, however, only a week after it began, and the trainees were told to report for field work the next week. Fraser was laid off in July 1975. The ETT program was officially terminated in September 1975, and eight of the ten female trainees were laid off. These actions by Vickery and City Light management were widely seen as retaliation against Fraser for her participation in the 1974 walkout. After the cancellation of training, nine of the female ETT's filed a discrimination complaint with the City of Seattle Office of Women's Rights, stating they were being denied the same amount of training and pay given to male employees, and their terminations were later added. In July 1976, City Light was ordered by a court to reinstate six of the eight terminated women, pay them damage fees, and make them eligible for

apprenticeship Apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners to gain a ...

programs. Following her termination, Fraser filed a lawsuit against Seattle City Light, alleging discrimination on the basis of sex and

political ideology An ideology is a set of beliefs or philosophies attributed to a person or group of persons, especially those held for reasons that are not purely epistemic, in which "practical elements are as prominent as theoretical ones." Formerly applied prim ...

. After a seven year legal battle, a court ruled in favor of Fraser, ordering her reinstatement and payment in damages. In 1983, the Employee Committee for Equal Rights at City Light (CERCL) was established by a group of women employees and employees of color to fight discrimination and harassment in the workplace. CERCL membership grew rapidly over the course of the 1980's and pressured the Seattle Human Rights Department to investigate discrimination cases that had previously been met with inaction.

Art program

Seattle City Light began commissioning decorative designs for its

manhole cover A manhole cover or maintenance hole cover is a removable plate forming the lid over the opening of a manhole, an opening large enough for a person to pass through that is used as an access point for an underground vault or pipe. It is designed t ...

s in the 1970s after suggestions from Jacquetta Blanchett Freeman, a member of the

Seattle Arts Commission Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region of N ...

. A set of 19 manhole covers with relief maps of Downtown Seattle were designed by city employee Anne Knight and installed beginning in April 1977 to aid with wayfinding. Knight's covers use raised symbols to represent local landmarks, including the now-demolished Kingdome, that are labeled with a key on the outer ring other manhole. Other commissioned designs include portraits of city figures, a

Tlingit The Tlingit ( or ; also spelled Tlinkit) are indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America. Their language is the Tlingit language (natively , pronounced ),

-styled whale, and Nothwestern flowers. , there are 115 manhole covers in Seattle with decorative designs. In 2012, the Seattle City Light Conservation Program hired Adam Frank to produce a large scale installation that featured the City of Seattle's hydroelectric power sources. This work of light was a projected living map of Seattle's hydroelectric generation and electricity use.

Notes

External links

Seattle City Light websiteGuide to the Seattle City Light Department History Files 1894-1972Guide to the Seattle City Light Annual Reports 1910-2000
{{authority control Seattle City Light Companies based in Seattle Municipal electric utilities of the United States Government of Seattle Seattle metropolitan area Public utilities of the United States Public utilities established in 1905 1905 establishments in Washington (state)