With only a few weeks left until the November 7th election, residents, business owners and neighboring city leaders are wondering if the City of Grand Haven’s governance has what it will take to provide the same reliable service that electricity customers have become accustomed to receiving from the Board of Light and Power (BLP). Despite representing roughly only one-half of the BLP’s 15,000 customers, residents of Grand Haven City will get to decide the fate of the BLP for all its customers. The remaining GHBLP customers that live in the City of Ferrysburg, Grand Haven Township, Spring Lake Township, and Robinson Township are being left on the sidelines as the Board of Light and Power Charter Change Coalition (BLPCCC) attempts a power grab of the utility on behalf of the City of Grand Haven.
GHBLP customers have come to rely on services that outperform the state and the national electrical utility averages for outage tracking, restoration, and overall system reliability. This success didn’t happen by accident. Under the expert guidance of the publicly-elected BLP board and the BLP hired General Manager, the GHBLP has assembled a team of highly skilled line workers, engineers, operations directors, finance directors, human resource personnel, and customer service representatives. Working together under the direction of the BLP board members, and with the best interest of the utility and its customers as its sole focus, the BLP has been able to obtain a solid reputation for reliability, unmatched by other utilities.
Over the last several years, GHBLP customers saw the frequency and duration of power interruptions decrease, while other utility customers experienced an increase. In 2021, the GHBLP had a total average outage per customer per year of 2.75 hours. In comparison, Michigan’s average was 14.85 hours, and the national average was 7.93 hours. The BLP’s success can be contributed to continuous investments in infrastructure maintenance, repairs and replacement, commitment to an energy plan with diverse energy sources, and fiscal responsibility.
When utilities cannot provide reliable services without power interruptions, it is their customers that end up paying the price. For business owners, power interruptions can lead to decreased revenue, damaged equipment, lost data, and spoiled inventory. In an article from Bloomenergy dated October 8, 2019, “one in three retailers lost power at least once a month in 2017, and about 40% of those outages lasted longer than 1 hour.” To a single supermarket, that could equate to hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses from perishable goods.
In order to protect themselves from the power interruptions, business will install backup power sources. Most often this means a diesel generator. Unfortunately, diesel generators create a whole new set of issues. Besides cost, the exhaust from diesel generators can be harmful to the environment as it can be filled with toxic air contaminants that contain carcinogenic compounds. Also, diesel generators require regular testing and maintenance to ensure they are in working order so that they will perform as expected when needed.
What does all of this mean? Business owners, customers, and communities have all benefitted from the reliable service that the GHBLP has been able to provide. The BLP’s success at reducing power outages has saved customers additional expenses including replacement of damaged goods and equipment, loss of sales and revenue, and costs associated with investing in expensive backup power systems.
GHBLP customers know when they flip the switch, the lights will turn on.
Can the City of Grand Haven leadership team duplicate the same success as the GHBLP’s team of experts?
With the City of Grand Haven making the electricity distribution decisions, will they be able to maintain the incredible outage statistics that BLP customers have come to expect?