Southport’s Board of Aldermen discusses public power usage

SOUTHPORT, NC (WWAY) — There are more than 2,000 public power communities in the U.S. including more than 70 in North Carolina. 

Southport is one city in the Cape Fear that relies on public power utility. 

Public power is a resource that many cities, like Southport, use for their power needs. 

It means the community owns and operates its own electric utility. 

On Monday, elected leaders met to discuss what changes can be made to continue seeing the benefit from public power. 

In Brunswick County, Southport’s Board of Aldermen met at Indian Trail Meeting Hall and assessed ways to provide reliable power to their city. 

ElectriCities is a member organization that serves public power communities like Southport. 

ElectriCities CEO, Roy Jones, said he and his team consistently review the cost-benefit analysis of providing their services to Southport. 

That analysis was presented on Monday along with some suggested changes. 

“We talked with Southport about implementing in the future some time of use rates — making sure that their load management program is used and is useful and customers are seeing the benefit of that on their monthly power bill,” ElectriCities of North Carolina CEO, Roy Jones, said. 

Jones added that Southport has been a participating location for decades. 

He said Southport has and will continue to monitor ways to be more energy efficient in an effort to continue seeing the benefit of public power.