Investing in Our Community's Future
On our Facebook page, you’ll see a video depicting new steel transmission poles rising along the landscape east of Susanville in the small community of Wendel. Each pole represents another step toward completing 1 of the most important reliability projects in Lassen Municipal Utility District’s history.
When the Skedaddle interconnection becomes operational, currently scheduled for December, LMUD will have a second connection to the regional transmission grid. For decades, our reliance on a single primary transmission path has left our community vulnerable when severe weather, wildfire, or other events interrupt that connection. Skedaddle fundamentally changes that equation by providing another path to serve our community.
The benefits go beyond reliability. The new interconnection will provide greater flexibility in how we buy and receive electricity, opening the door to additional energy resources throughout the West. As energy markets grow and evolve, having options matters. Greater transmission and power resource diversity will give our team more tools to manage risk and work toward our long-standing goal of providing safe, reliable, and affordable power.
Skedaddle is a major investment in our community’s future, but it isn’t the only one. LMUD recently announced a $1.2 million investment in Historic Uptown Susanville that will bring new electric vehicle charging infrastructure and improvements to the public parking lot adjacent to our 50 N. Gay St. property. What I especially appreciate about this project is the opportunity to leverage funding from outside our local community and work with community partners to make an investment that provides benefits beyond LMUD’s traditional electric infrastructure.
As a community-owned utility, we want the dollars we invest to work as hard as possible for the people we serve. When we can bring outside funding into Lassen County, build partnerships, improve local infrastructure, and contribute to the continued revitalization of Uptown Susanville, that’s an opportunity worth pursuing. The EV charging and parking lot project is another example of how public power can create value right here at home.
Whether we’re building a transmission line that will serve Lassen County for generations or investing in infrastructure in the heart of Uptown, the principle is the same: We’re investing in the future of the community we serve.
I hope you’ll join me for our next Coffee With the General Manager at 7 a.m. on September 14 at Joe’s Coffee Shop on the corner of Fairfield Avenue and Main Street in Midtown Susanville. These informal conversations are opportunities to ask questions, share ideas, and talk about what’s happening at LMUD. I always appreciate hearing directly from the people we serve.
As always, I encourage you to stay engaged with your community-owned utility and participate in our public board meetings, held at 5:30 p.m. on the 4th Tuesday of each month. Your questions, ideas, and participation help guide the decisions we make today and the utility we’re building for tomorrow.
Nick Dominguez
General Manager