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Utility Overview
Seattle City Light is one of the nation's largest municipally owned utilities serving more than 420,000 homes and 49,000 businesses throughout Seattle, Shoreline, Lake Forest Park, Burien, Renton, Tukwila, SeaTac, Normandy Park, and Unincorporated King County. We are a not-for-profit, public utility supported by revenues from our customers, not taxes.
City Light is dedicated to delivering customers affordable, reliable, and environmentally responsible electricity services and to building equity within our workforce, our communities, and our environment. Our work toward racial, economic, and environmental justice is a demonstration of our core values.
Sources of Power
Seattle City Light-owned hydroelectric plants depend on rain and snow as their fuel. In years with normal precipitation, City Light facilities supply more than half of Seattle's power needs. The difference is made up by purchasing power from outside the service area.
*City Light does not have coal or natural gas resources in its power supply portfolio. It does make market purchases to balance or match its loads and resources. These purchases, along with market purchases made by Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), may incidentally include coal or natural gas resources, which are assigned to the utility. Any emissions associated with unspecified market purchases are offset through our greenhouse gas (GHG) neutrality policy.
**This fuel represents a portion of the power purchased from BPA.
Energy Efficiency Programs and Services
City Light has the longest continually running energy efficiency program in the country. Since its inception in 1977, energy efficiency measures have been installed in residential, commercial, and industrial facilities throughout our service territory. As a result, City Light's annual load was reduced by over 1.38 million megawatt-hours* in 2018. That is the equivalent annual electricity use of approximately 190,000 average Seattle homes.
City Light has supported our customers' projects with more than $37.5 million in energy efficiency incentives. More than $9 million of these payments have gone to residential customers. To date, City Light energy conservation programs have cumulatively saved customers $136 million on their energy bills.
*Source of national data: Department of Energy (www.eia.doe.gov/electricity/). The 2018 national average annual consumption data and average rate data not available; certain 2015-2014 national average annual consumption and national average rate data were updated with revised actuals.
Rate Information
City Light is proud to offer its residential customers some of the lowest electricity rates in the nation and the Pacific Northwest. City Light rates are determined, reviewed, and approved by City Council every two years.
See additional information on Residential Rates or Business Rates.