The Value of Public Power

Every year during the first week of October we celebrate National Public Power Week. During this time, we want to once again thank you for being our customer-owners, and invite you to join with us in celebrating what it means to be a public power utility.

The Snohomish County PUD became an electric utility thanks to a vote by the people. Its purpose was to provide publicly owned electric and water service to the people of Snohomish County and Camano Island.

For almost 75 years, we’ve had the privilege of delivering clean water and reliable power to our communities. Public power means we’re accountable to you, our customers-owners.

Our purpose is to deliver essential utility services to help our communities thrive. We embrace our role in enabling the vitality of the communities we serve, today and tomorrow.

Our elected Commissioners are committed to creatively meeting the future head-on while powering a strong economy and environment.

The citizens who originally voted to form the Snohomish PUD felt that electricity was an essential part of daily life, and that instead of being a financial opportunity, electricity should be regarded as a public service, like roads, schools or parks. They felt electric companies should be owned by the public and should be operated in the interests of the communities they serve.

There are 28 public power utilities in Washington state – and Snohomish PUD is the second largest. With over 370,000 customers, we are the 12th-largest publicly owned electric utility in the nation.

The legacy of being publicly owned continues to drive us to this day. We believe that creating and supporting relationships with our customers and our communities is as fundamental to our mission as delivering power and water. We will continue to do all we can to provide dependable, clean power at the lowest possible rate.

We are honored to be your public power utility and are looking forward to the next 75 years! To learn more about the value of public power, click here.

Get involved!

Our planners are putting the finishing touches on our 2023 Integrated Resource plan, which is our long-term strategy on how we will provide power to our customers in the future. We are hosting an open house and would love to hear from you! Our IRP Open House is Thursday Nov. 2 at 5 p.m. at our Arlington Microgrid and Clean Energy Center (17601 59th Ave. NE, Arlington, WA 98223).