Public Power

It’s Great to live in a Public Power Community!

As a resident of Bryan, you receive your electricity from a publicly-owned utility. You are part of the long tradition of public power in the United States. At its heart, “public power” is an expression of the American ideal of local people working together to meet local needs. Citizens serving in governance roles join with city employees to provide electricity to every home and business in a safe and responsive manner on a not-for-profit basis.

Reliability and Community Needs Come First

  • You and your neighbors are owners, driving utility policies. We are managed by local officials who are elected by the citizens of this community.
  • We discuss utility operations in meetings open to the public.
  • Our utility is directly accountable to you and all of the people we serve.

Rates, Services Set by Local Officials—Not Investors

  • Public power utilities like ours lead the way in providing low- cost energy for homes and businesses. Our goal is maximizing community value, not profits for distant shareholders.
  • Based on community input, local government and utility officials set electric rates, invest in technology improvements, offer energy savings programs, determine staffing levels, and maintain a service fleet able to respond quickly to outages.
  • Our local repair crews know our system and each neighborhood. We work hard to identify and correct problems quickly.

Economic Benefits Stay Here

  • Revenue to the electric department helps finance other essential city services. The fees you pay for electric service help keep your local taxes low.
  • Our utility supports the local economy by purchasing from local businesses and hiring local workers. Lower electric rates, a commitment to reliability, and economic development incentives make our community an attractive place to do business.

Neighborly Customer Service

  • When you contact the utility customer service department, you are reaching a local office staffed by folks dedicated to customer satisfaction.

Take pride in being a public power community. We take pride in serving you.

Reliable Public Power Provider (RP3®) Program

Bryan Municipal Utilities is one of only 121 public electric utilities in the nation to receive the industry’s highest recognition for reliability and safety. BMU was awarded American Public Power Association’s Reliable Public Power Providers (RP3®) Diamond status in April 2019.

The RP3 Program shines a light on a utility for the excellent service it provides to its customers. It encourages public power utilities to operate an efficient and reliable distribution system by demonstrating proficiency in four important disciplines: reliability, safety, work force development, and system improvement.

RP3® Program Criteria

  • Reliability – Key elements of the reliability section include reliability indices, a mutual aid agreement, a system-wide disaster management plan (emergency response plan), and both cyber and physical security.
  • Safety – Each utility must prove that it uses an accepted safety manual, follows safe work practices, and meets OSHA benchmarking safety statistics.
  • Work Force Development – Utilities must demonstrate that their utility staff attend industry conferences and workshops, are provided education and career development opportunities, are active on industry committees, and that the utility engages in work force development and succession planning initiatives.
  • System Improvement – Important items in this section include demonstration that the utility participates in research and development, involvement in energy efficiency or conservation programs, and evidence of system maintenance and betterment projects.

RP3 designations are awarded at three levels — Gold for utilities meeting 80 to 89 percent of the requirements, Platinum for 90 to 99 percent, and Diamond for meeting 100 percent of the requirements in all four areas.

BMU met 100 percent of the requirements and was awarded the Diamond designation for the first time and fifth time overall RP3 status since 2006. An RP3 designation is valid for a three-year period; the utility must re-apply every three years. The intent of the re-application process is to ensure RP3 utilities are consistently striving to improve the quality of their system.

Located in Washington, D.C., the APPA is the national organization representing more than 2,000 not-for-profit, community- and state-owned electric utilities.