2009 Public Power Week Wrapup

For information contact:

(781) 245-7070

Wakefield Municipal Gas & Light Department General Manager Pete Dion, met with local residents throughout the month of October to celebrate the benefits and advantages of a community-owned electric utility as part of the WMGLD’s Public Power Week activities. The WMGLD is one of  2,010 community-owned electric utilities in the United States that serve more than 44 million people and 2.8 million business customers.

The General Manager met with local seniors at the John J. McCarthy Senior Center, and with members of the Wakefield Rotary Club at a recent meeting to discuss a variety of topics in addition to public power. He had an opportunity to talk about, and answer questions related to, energy conservation, the new design of the rate structure, understanding the new bills, ways businesses can encourage energy conservation at the workplace, and WMGLD’s preventative maintenance and tree-trimming programs.

General Manager Dion also had an opportunity to visit fifth grade classrooms at the Galvin Middle School and St. Joseph’s School to introduce the second annual WMGLD Essay Contest which teaches students about public power, how electricity gets to their homes, and how they can help save energy in their own homes. As part of the contest, the students were asked to write an essay about what saving energy means to them, drawing upon some of the information they learned during the General Manager’s visit. The essays will be submitted to the WMGLD and five winning essays will be selected from among the entries. The winners will be honored at a ceremony later this month.

Public Power Week, sponsored by the American Public Power Association (APPA), provides an opportunity for utilities like the WMGLD to remind customers that local residents make important decisions about their public power services. To commemorate the week and the benefits of public power, the Wakefield Board of Selectmen proclaimed the week of October 4^th through 10^th Public Power Week in Wakefield.

“I was happy to be a spokesperson in the community for the many benefits and advantages of public power in Wakefield,” Pete said. “These meetings are just a small part of the WMGLD’s involvement in the community each and every day, not only during Pubic Power Week.” 

Public power utilities are consumer owned and operated and provide reliable, responsive, not-for-profit electric service. The WMGLD has been providing safe, reliable power and exceptional service to customers since 1894. In addition to Public Power Week, customers of public power utilities have access to programs and services not usually available to customers of private electric utilities, including conservation services, appliance rebates and other energy-saving incentives.

“The WMGLD is committed to keeping rates low while contributing to the economic development of the community, something we have been doing for the past 115 years,” he added.

To learn more about WMGLD and the services it provides, please call 781-246-6363 or visit the website at www.wmgld.com.