City of Marlow celebrates Public Power Week

The City of Marlow and the Marlow Municipal Authority are celebrating Public Power Week, Oct. 1-7, along with over 2,000 other community-powered, not-for-profit electric utilities that collectively provide power to 49 million Americans.

"The landscape of electricity, and how that is consumed, is changing," said Jason McPherson, the city administrator of the City of Marlow. "The community is using more power than ever, and the future shows that consumption will only grow as the technology affects our everyday lives."

Public Power cities like Marlow operate four key principles:

Local Control and Response - Rates are local decisions by locally elected officials (the city council plus two appointed trustees). A five-member, highly-trained electric department works every day to keep the lights on, and when they go off, they are there quickly because they live here too.

Reinvestment - Marlow invests over a million dollars back into the city each year. Those dollars are used to support critical elements of city services like law enforcement and fire and medical first responders. It also funds infrastructure like parks and streets, in addition to vital upgrades and maintenance of the expansive electrical distribution system.

Reliability and Accessibility - Because ownership of the electric utility is here, so are the people who make sure the lights stay on. When your lights go out, ours go out. So, the City of Marlow works every day to improve reliability to keep the lights on, and when they do go out, we can respond quickly to work to get them back on. Marlow's 2022 reliability percentage was 99.9913%!!! Reliability has topped 99.99% the past three years, consecutively.

Award-winning - Marlow Electric's reliability and safety practices have been locally and nationally recognized. Marlow Electric has been honored with awards for reliability and employee safety in 2008, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022.

For the month of October, if a utility bill is paid in person, they will receive a free 9-watt (60-watt equivalent) LED light bulb.

There are many convenient options when it comes to paying a City of Marlow utility bill including, online at www.cityofmarlow.com, bank or automatic draft, a drive-through, 24-hour secure drop box and anytime by phone at 866-228-6746.

The City of Marlow has provided public power since 1910. Over the past decade, the city has invested almost $6 million into the distribution, transmission, and substation system.

"Since we operate right here in Marlow and serve our friends and neighbors, we care a great deal about things like customer service, helping folks save energy and money, providing reliable service, and keeping the community safe," said McPherson. "We are proud of the work we do in these areas."