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
A metropolitan area or metro is a region that consists of a densely populated urban agglomeration and its surrounding territories sharing industries, commercial areas, transport network, infrastructures and housing. A metro area usually com ...
, 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 ...
, nearly all of
Lake Forest Park, and parts of unincorporated
King County
King County is located in the U.S. state of Washington. The population was 2,269,675 in the 2020 census, making it the most populous county in Washington, and the 13th-most populous in the United States. The county seat is Seattle, also the st ...
,
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 ...
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-lar ...
.
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 C ...
, 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 sour ...
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
In the 1960s and 1970s, Seattle City Light's
research and development
Research and development (R&D or R+D), known in Europe as research and technological development (RTD), is the set of innovative activities undertaken by corporations or governments in developing new services or products, and improving existi ...
department developed several prototype
electric vehicle
An electric vehicle (EV) is a vehicle that uses one or more electric motors for propulsion. It can be powered by a collector system, with electricity from extravehicular sources, or it can be powered autonomously by a battery (sometimes cha ...
s. 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
Downtown is the central business district of Seattle, Washington. It is fairly compact compared with other city centers on the U.S. West Coast due to its geographical situation, being hemmed in on the north and east by hills, on the west by ...
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 combus ...
-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 dea ...
, 1% natural gas, 1% biogas.
[Fuel Mix: How Seattle City Light Electricity is Generated](_blank)
(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 constr ...
(BPA). The remaining power comes from a mixture of sources.
Owned facilities
The utility owns and operates a total of seven hydro facilities:
* 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 C ...
, a series of three
hydroelectric
Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other renewable sources combined and ...
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 Columbia ...
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 have o ...
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 Pacif ...
. 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 a ...
, 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
The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...
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.
In 1973 City Light hired
Clara Fraser
Clara Fraser (March 12, 1923 – February 24, 1998) was a socialist feminist political organizer, who co-founded and led the Freedom Socialist Party and Radical Women.
Biography
Early life and activism
Clara Fraser was born in 1923 to Jewis ...
, 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
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...
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
Discrimination is the act of making unjustified distinctions between people based on the groups, classes, or other categories to which they belong or are perceived to belong. People may be discriminated on the basis of race, gender, age, relig ...
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 Tradesman, trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners ...
programs.
Following her termination, Fraser filed a lawsuit against Seattle City Light, alleging discrimination on the basis of
sex
Sex is the trait that determines whether a sexually reproducing animal or plant produces male or female gametes. Male plants and animals produce smaller mobile gametes (spermatozoa, sperm, pollen), while females produce larger ones (ova, oft ...
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 pri ...
. 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
Harassment covers a wide range of behaviors of offensive nature. It is commonly understood as behavior that demeans, humiliates or embarrasses a person, and it is characteristically identified by its unlikelihood in terms of social and moral ...
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 to ...
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 ...
. A set of 19 manhole covers with relief maps of
Downtown Seattle
Downtown is the central business district of Seattle, Washington. It is fairly compact compared with other city centers on the U.S. West Coast due to its geographical situation, being hemmed in on the north and east by hills, on the west by ...
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
The Kingdome (officially the King County Stadium) was a multi-purpose stadium located in the Industrial District, Seattle, Industrial District (later SoDo, Seattle, SoDo) neighborhood of Seattle, Washington (state), Washington, United States. O ...
, 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
Further reading
Archives
Megan Cornish Papers 1970-2003. 10.26 cubic feet. At th
Labor Archives of Washington, University of Washington Libraries Special Collections
Clara Fraser Papers 1905-1998, 36.70 cubic feet. At th
Labor Archives of Washington, University of Washington Libraries Special Collections
Heidi Durham Papers and Oral History Interviews 1937-2017, 1.57 cubic feet. At th
Labor Archives of Washington, University of Washington Libraries Special Collections
Articles and interviews
Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project, 2005.
* Megan Cornish Interview with Nicole Grant and Alex Morrow, October 20, 2005, ''YouTube'', uploaded by Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project, September 9, 2016
Megan Cornish - YouTubeMegan Cornish, Conor Casey, and Ellie Belew Interview with Mike Dumovich "We Do the Work," ''KSVR'', February 22, 2019.
* Nicole Grant
Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project, 2006.
* Ellie Belew Interview with Mimi Rosenberg, ''YouTube'', uploaded by Radical Women - U.S., uploaded March 28. 2019
HIGH VOLTAGE WOMEN: Interview & slideshow
Books
* Ellie Belew, ''High Voltage Women: Breaking Barriers at Seattle City Light'', Red Letter Press, 2019.
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)