2023 Tacoma Power Highlights

Tacoma Power Superintendent, Chris Robinson
As part of Tacoma Public Utilities, Tacoma Power shares the Mission of delivering clean, reliable services essential to quality of life.
Overview
For over 125 years, our power utility has generated clean, renewable hydropower to provide reliable, affordable electricity for our customers. In 2023, we served approximately 178,326 customers compared to 183,524 in 2022. We provided 99.986% availability of services to our customers in 2023. We own and operate seven dams across four hydroelectric projects, including parks and campgrounds.
Acting From Our Values
In 2023, Tacoma Public Utilities launched a unified Mission, Vision, and Values for its power, water, and rail utilities. Our shared Values are Safety, Belonging, Customer Focus, Integrity, and Respect. Tacoma Power employees modeled these Values throughout 2023. Here are a few examples.
Safety
We established Safety as its top priority for its first shared TPU Value. This year provided numerous examples of how the utility’s employees and leaders exemplify this Value.
Tacoma Power received an honorable mention in the APPA Safety Award of Excellence. The award acknowledges utilities for their overall safety, and this award recognized our power utility for its recordable incident rate, safety culture, and safety programs.
From 2018, when we contracted with CAT, the consulting arm of Caterpillar, to now, our utility strengthened its safety practices. The award is one example of how its journey to improve our safety culture is progressing positively.
When Western Washington began to experience wildfires in 2021, we gathered a group of key community members from local power utilities and fire departments to promote communication between the entities and proactively prepare should we experience wildfires in our service territory and the surrounding areas. A coordinated effort would be critical to managing the fires and ensuring the safety of our communities. The entities come together twice a year, typically in April (pre-wildfire season) and November (post-wildfire season), and use the time to discuss lessons learned, plan for the future, train, and share information.
Belonging
Our Tacoma Power Emergency Management Manager received the Patriot Award from the ESGR (Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve), a program of the U.S. Department of Defense, for demonstrating patriotic support for an employee who is also a United States Air Force Reserve service member.
Customer Focus
On June 29, our Meter Shop completed all assigned commercial and industrial advanced meter upgrades. Over the last two and a half years, they exchanged 201,350 meters while navigating the pandemic and supply chain challenges. One hundred fifteen advanced meter upgrades are on hold until our meter vendor can deliver the last meter form. Many large commercial customers have bypass switches, so they didn’t experience a service interruption during the meter exchange; however, the team knows losing power during business hours can be very disruptive, so Customer Services contacted each customer to schedule appointments. The meter shop technicians often met with customers before completing the upgrade to alleviate any concerns.
Integrity
Our Rates, Planning, and Analysis group, and senior leaders collaborated to ensure the rate increase presented to the Public Utility Board would meet the minimum requirements of our budget without adversely impacting our customers. The 3.5% increase was below the inflation rate for the Puget Sound region, resulting in an average monthly increase of $3.70 for our residential customers. In conjunction with the rate increase, we enhanced our residential bill assistance programs to provide automatic credits to qualified customers. We also increased the total household amount of available aid from $672 to $967 per year. Our primary and shared goal is to be trusted financial stewards for our customers and provide reliable and affordable services to our community.
Respect
In October, Tacoma Power and Tacoma Water collaborated with Human Resources and the IBEW Local 483 to host an Apprenticeship Expo at Tacoma Public Utilities. The expo was a way for us to provide individuals from the community with an opportunity to learn about trade careers in Power (Line, Wire, and Meter) and Water. Attendees had the opportunity to interact with current leaders and staff. We hosted panels, had staff available to answer questions, and set up information booths to provide attendees with materials to share with others or use for their own information to pursue a career path in the trades. Our employees in these disciplines are the core of our organization, allowing us to fulfill our Mission of “We deliver clean, reliable services essential to quality of life.”
Conclusion
Providing clean, reliable services essential to the quality of life in our community is an honor and work we take seriously. It is a privilege to serve you.
2023 Tacoma Power Finacial Report
2023 Tacoma Power Financial Highlights