Tacoma Power is a

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

electrical power Electric power is the rate at which electrical energy is transferred by an electric circuit. The SI unit of power is the watt, one joule per second. Standard prefixes apply to watts as with other SI units: thousands, millions and billion ...

Tacoma, Washington Tacoma ( ) is the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, and northwest of Mount Rainier National Pa ...

and the surrounding areas. Tacoma Power serves the cities of Tacoma, University Place, Fircrest, and

Fife Fife (, ; gd, Fìobha, ; sco, Fife) is a council area, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries with Perth and Kinross ...

, and also provides service to parts of Steilacoom, Lakewood, and unincorporated Pierce County. It is a division of the Tacoma Public Utilities and owns the

Click! Network Click! Network is an open access broadband cable system owned by Tacoma Power, a part of Tacoma Public Utilities in Tacoma, Washington. It provides cable television and Internet connectivity for residents and businesses in Tacoma, University Pla ...

, developed by Steven Klein, Tacoma Power's former superintendent.

History

In 1884, Charles B. Wright was granted the exclusive right to create Tacoma's first power and water company, incorporating the Tacoma Light and Water Company. Wright's system drew water from Tule and

Spanaway Lake Spanaway Lake High School is a high school in Spanaway, Washington, for grade levels 9 through 12. In 2007, 6 percent of 10th graders meet standard on the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) writing test and 7 percent meet standard ...

s and Clover Creek. The water was transported to the city through a 10-mile wooden

flume A flume is a human-made channel for water, in the form of an open declined gravity chute whose walls are raised above the surrounding terrain, in contrast to a trench or ditch. Flumes are not to be confused with aqueducts, which are built to t ...

that emptied into an in-town reservoir. The flume was mostly uncovered and attracted thirsty cows and children in search of a good wading pool.Bjork v. Tacoma (1913) 76 Wash. 225, 135 Pac. 1005 This led to the spread of disease. Tacoma City Light was created in 1893 when the citizens of Tacoma voted to buy the privately owned Tacoma Light & Water Company to ensure its safety and longevity. Its first independent power generation came with the construction of LaGrande Dam on the

Nisqually River The Nisqually River is a river in west central Washington in the United States, approximately long. It drains part of the Cascade Range southeast of Tacoma, including the southern slope of Mount Rainier, and empties into the southern end of Pu ...

, 36 miles away from the city, producing hydroelectric power as of November, 1912. In 2011, Tacoma Power received the first-ever Award for Excellence in Energy Efficiency from the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA). The award recognizes Tacoma Power's "exceptional creativity, leadership and achievement in the pursuit of energy efficiency." The utility competed against other utilities and organizations served by BPA in

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 ...

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Monta ...

and

Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columb ...

References

External links

Tacoma Power web site
* * {{authority control Municipal electric utilities of the United States Tacoma Public Utilities

History

See also

References

External links