Seattle City Light, along with more than 2,000 other community-owned electric utilities nationwide, is celebrating Public Power Week. Each year, the first full week in October is set aside to recognize the many contributions made by public power utilities to provide affordable, reliable, and safe power year-round to the communities we serve.
We invited several City Light employees from across the utility to share how they help power our communities and reflect on what drew them to a career in public power.
“(Public power) opens up an avenue for creative solutions to meet the energy needs of our communities,” remarked Paul Dockery, Senior Energy Resource Strategy & Planning Manager, who also hosts a public power podcast.
Director of Project Delivery Tamara Jenkins highlighted the importance of teamwork for utilities to support the evolving needs of their communities.
“It makes me think of a symphony orchestra, which is near and dear to my heart,” Tamara explained. “And each instrument has an important place that only they can fill. And in that place, there is a lot of practice, there’s a lot of discord, before we get to harmony.”
We are proud of the work we do to help customers save energy and money. Public utilities like City Light thrive because we are community owned and governed by local decision-making. That means we’re working together with our customers and community leaders to make sure our utility reflects the long-term goals and needs of our communities.
“City Light has a tradition of collectively making decisions that are going to be good for the environment and serve the community,” said Raman Vishnawathan, Director of Risk Oversight.
If you are considering working for your nonprofit public power utility, keep an eye on our current job openings and check out our careers page for more information on job openings, apprenticeships, and internships.