Powering Our Community
The Origins of Lassen Municipal Utility District’s (LMUD) Power Supply
A lot happens behind the scenes at Lassen Municipal Utility District to make sure your power is delivered safely and reliably, day and night. As your local public power provider, we often get questions about where our electricity comes from. 1 of the most common misconceptions we hear is that LMUD buys power from PG&E, but that’s not the case.
The truth is, we don’t buy power from PG&E, but we do use its transmission line through the Feather River Canyon to deliver the energy we’ve purchased elsewhere to the LMUD grid. Thanks to decades of careful planning and community investment, LMUD’s power mix is diverse, resilient, and increasingly local.
A significant portion of our electricity comes from the Western Area Power Administration’s base resource, a combination of federal hydroelectric power generation plants operating throughout California. The base resource provides hydroelectric power at stable and low-cost wholesale rates. Our allocation supplies about 20 million kilowatt-hours per year, delivered to our system via LMUD’s Westwood Substation. That’s enough energy to power more than 2,000 average households for an entire year. This resource is variable: we receive a percentage of the project’s total energy generation output, which is plentiful in spring and summer, as the snowpack melts, but declines in fall and winter.
We also benefit from an additional base resource allocation assigned to LMUD by the Susanville Indian Rancheria. This collaboration reflects our long-standing partnership with the Rancheria and demonstrates how we can create great value for our community by working together.
Another cornerstone of our power portfolio is Honey Lake Solar, a local solar generation facility in Wendel. In 2017, LMUD entered into a 30-year power purchase agreement for 7 megawatts of solar energy. With roughly 13,000 panels, this project helps us meet the state’s renewable portfolio standard and keeps your energy dollars circulating in our community.
To fill out our remaining portfolio and adapt to shifting conditions, we buy additional power through short-term contracts and energy market purchases. Procuring this power in advance helps to shield us from energy market volatility.
Despite our best efforts, we remain exposed to high wholesale energy costs when droughts reduce hydropower output and natural gas prices soar. Research shows that from 2003 to 2020, drought across the West cut hydropower generation by more than 300 million megawatt-hours, forcing utilities to rely on more expensive fossil fuel resources and increasing wholesale power prices.
This winter started dry, and though recent storms have boosted the Sierra snowpack, future water conditions always remain uncertain. When hydro generation drops, energy costs climb. This is an important reminder that our local grid is tied to larger regional and global systems, including weather.
Looking ahead, the Skedaddle Substation and NV Energy interconnection, scheduled for completion in December, will provide us with a more reliable connection to the grid, give us access to a broader power market, and help integrate new firm and renewable energy projects. We’ll continue to receive our WAPA base resource and HL solar energy, and we’re expanding our portfolio with several promising resources:
- Baseload geothermal located in Wendel, right in our backyard, will deliver less than 1 megawatt of power.
- Fish Lake Geothermal in Yerington, Nevada, is expected to deliver 3 megawatts of baseload power under a 15-year contract.
- Red Mesa Solar, developed in partnership with the Utah Association of Municipal Power Systems and the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority, already provides 3 megawatts of solar power to LMUD for the next 20 years.
- And we’re also working with UAMPS to onboard additional baseload and flexible natural gas generation that can quickly ramp up when renewable output dips.
These projects and future ones will complement our existing resources, diversify our energy mix, and help us meet California’s increasing renewable energy requirements.
As your public power utility, our priority is always to deliver safe, reliable, and affordable service. Investor-owned utilities serve nearly 70% of U.S. customers and have requested billions in rate increases that fuel record profits. Public power operates differently. We reinvest every dollar into operations, maintenance, and community programs. We know every dollar counts, and we’re committed to helping manage your energy costs.
Our connection to the broader energy system means we’ll continue to advocate for sensible laws, regulations, and market reforms. But our roots are here in Lassen County. We operate on behalf of our friends, neighbors, and partners, including WAPA, UAMPS, and the Susanville Indian Rancheria. We’re proud of the diverse power portfolio we’ve built, and we’re excited about the new opportunities the NV Energy interconnection will unlock.
Thank you for supporting your locally owned utility. Please join us at our next board meeting to learn more and share your ideas. Visit lmud.org for more information.
Together, we’re keeping the lights on and the future bright.
Nick Dominguez
General Manager