Seattle City Light
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| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | 1905: The first municipally owned hydro facility, Cedar Falls, begins generating power for Seattle |
| Type | Electric utility |
| Jurisdiction | City of Seattle and some outlying communities |
| Headquarters |
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| Employees | 1,872 |
Agency executive |
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| Website | www |
Seattle City Light is the public utility providing electricity to Seattle, Washington, in the United States, and parts of its metropolitan area, including all of Shoreline, nearly all of Lake Forest Park, and parts of unincorporated King County, Burien, Normandy Park, SeaTac, Renton, and Tukwila.[1] 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 every year since.
Seattle City Light is a department of the City of Seattle and is governed by the Economic Development, Technology & City Light committee of the Seattle City Council.
Overview
[edit]Approximately 961,000 residents (493,663 metered customers) are served by Seattle City Light in its service area, which covers 131.31 square miles (340.1 km2) in Seattle and surrounding areas. They collectively used 9,317,893 megawatt-hours of electricity in 2022; the 441,926 residential customers consumed 30.4% of the annual electricity while the 51,737 commercial and industrial customers used 44.96%.[2] Seattle City Light was the first electric utility in the nation to become greenhouse gas neutral (2005)[3] 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).[4]
City Light is led by general manager and CEO Dawn Lindell, who was appointed in 2024.[5]
History
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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.[6] 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, 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.[7]: 31 He staffed each branch office with an appliance salesman, and arranged for home economists to give lessons on new labor-saving devices.[7]: 52 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.[7]: 91
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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[when?] 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.[8]
In 1957, City Light was one of 17 utilities to join the Washington Public Power Supply System (later named Energy Northwest), a municipal corporation, to combine resources and build facilities.[7]: 93
On July 20, 1992, Roberta Palm Bradley was appointed superintendent of Seattle City Light and became the first woman and first African-American to head a major municipal public utility.[9][10]
In 2014, City Light completed the installation of 41,000 LED street lights along residential streets. Installation of LED streetlights on arterial streets started in 2015 and was expected to be complete by the end of 2018.[11]
The utility's former CEO, Jorge Carrasco, entered a dispute with brand.com over search result "scrubbing" in 2014.[12]
Electric vehicle prototypes
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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.[13] In 1973 the department converted an AMC Gremlin to run on electric power. The RT1, developed in 1976, was a city car intended for use in downtown Seattle in a zone where most internal combustion engine-powered vehicles would be banned. The RT1 was intended to have a top speed of 30 miles per hour (48 km/h), a range of 75 miles (121 km) on eight 6-volt batteries, and seating for four passengers. It never entered production.[14]
Seattle's electricity supply
[edit]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, 1% natural gas, 1% biogas.[15] City Light's portfolio of energy sources includes electricity purchased through long-term contracts with the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA). The remaining power comes from a mixture of sources.
Due to the reliance on hydroelectricity, itself dependent on consistent snowpack and melting seasons, City Light occasionally purchases supplemental power using its emergency funds.[16]
Seattle City Light residential customers pay about 14 cents per kilowatt-hour of electricity, as of 2025.[17] Seattle has the lowest residential and commercial electrical rates among comparably-sized cities in the United States.[18]
Owned facilities
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The utility owns and operates a total of six hydro facilities:
- The Skagit River Hydroelectric Project, a series of three hydroelectric dams (Gorge, Diablo, and Ross) on the