What Your City Light Rate Covers

When you flip a switch, the room lights up instantly. This simple action works every time because of a large network of dams, power lines, substations, and workers who operate around the clock. Every time you pay your City Light bill, you help fund this system.

We want to be clear about your utility bills. You work hard for your money, and you should understand where those dollars go. Today, we’re explaining what you pay for, and how we invest ratepayer dollars  to support reliable, sustainable, electric service.

Where Your Payment Goes

Your City Light bill shows a total for the electricity you used during the billing period. However, you pay for much more than just the electricity that you use in your home or business. Electric service means that you can access as much electricity as you need, at any time. Your payment supports the full process of power generation, high-voltage transmission, local delivery, customer service, billing, and community support.

Here are several areas that your payment supports:

Generating Renewable Energy 

We are fortunate to own and operate multiple hydroelectric facilities, which provide about half of our renewable electricity.

A large portion of your rate goes toward operating and maintaining these dams, such as the Boundary Dam and the Skagit River Hydroelectric Project. Operating these large facilities requires constant supervision, environmental management, and structural upkeep.

Your payments help us continue generating renewable power while managing water levels, protecting local fish habitats and surrounding ecosystems, and providing recreational opportunities.

Delivering Power to Your Door

After we generate electricity, we transport it across miles to the city and distribute it to your neighborhood. Your rate covers the transmission and distribution network across our service area.

This includes maintaining thousands of miles of overhead and underground wires, replacing aging wooden utility poles, and servicing the high-voltage substations that reduce power to safe levels for homes.

Supporting the Workforce

Your bill also pays for the people who make the system work. This includes field crews, power dispatchers, and support staff who restore power during winter storms. It covers the engineers designing a stronger grid, the customer service representatives answering your calls, and the technicians monitoring our power flow 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The expertise of our employees is our most valuable resource, and your rate helps us keep and support skilled workers to manage your power safely.

How We Invest Your Rate Dollars

We treat every dollar you pay as an investment in the Seattle area’s future. Rather than simply maintaining what we have, we look ahead to meet the changing needs of our growing region. Our investments focus on modernization, resilience, and customer equity.

Here’s how we’re planning for the future.

Preparing for the 2027-2032 Strategic Plan

We are preparing our 2027-2032 Strategic Plan, which will be reviewed for approval by City Council this summer. This plan outlines our priorities for the next several years. Your rates fund the projects within this plan.

We focus on grid modernization, which means upgrading our physical infrastructure with smart technology. These upgrades help us detect outages faster, route power more efficiently, and integrate new renewable energy sources into the grid.

Keeping power affordable, reliable, and sustainable — while meeting the region’s growing energy and climate needs — depends on having enough energy resources. In addition to maintaining our generation assets, we’re securing new resources to ensure we can meet demand. 

Strengthening Infrastructure Resilience

Climate change brings extreme weather patterns, from heat waves to severe winter storms. We invest a large portion of your rate dollars into strengthening our infrastructure against these conditions.

This means replacing aging, vulnerable equipment with stronger materials, increasing vegetation management programs to keep tree branches away from power lines, and upgrading substations to handle higher capacities during peak usage times.

Funding Essential Community Programs

As a public utility, serving our communities is central to our mission. We invest your rate dollars into programs that help our most vulnerable neighbors. This includes funding the Utility Discount Program, which provides bill assistance to seniors and low-income families.

We also invest in home energy solutions and weatherization programs that help homeowners and renters improve energy efficiency, which lowers their monthly bills and reduces strain on our power grid.

Looking Forward Together

Every time you pay your City Light bill, you do much more than keep your own lights on. You help maintain, improve, and secure the future of our power grid. We take our responsibility to manage your money seriously. Our commitment is to use every dollar efficiently to deliver the safe, reliable, and environmentally responsible power you deserve.

We encourage you to stay engaged as we prepare to release the 2027-2032 Strategic Plan. This document will provide more detail about our upcoming projects and financial priorities. You can review our current projects, find energy-saving tips, and explore customer assistance programs anytime by visiting our website.