30 Sep 2024 The benefits of public power

Posted at 8:18 PMh in Features, Food & Home Entertaining by

By Beth Jimmerson

This October, Conway Corp is celebrating Public Power Week along with more than 2,000 other community-owned, not-for-profit electric utilities that collectively provide electricity to more than 48 million Americans.

Public power puts the people of Conway first, and Public Power Week gives us the chance to celebrate the reliable, affordable electricity Conway Corp provides to our community.

As one of only 15 public power providers in the state and 2,000 across the nation, Conway Corp is special. We have operated alongside our customers in Conway since 1929. We not only work for Conway, we are Conway. Knowing our community and its needs helps us keep homes, businesses and public places powered year-round. Our service is safe, reliable and affordable, and we take pride in serving our friends and neighbors. 

Conway benefits from public power, including affordable energy costs, superior service, local control and reinvestment in the community. Local needs are considered when decisions are made about rates and services, power generation and green alternatives. Plus, public power revenues are reinvested into community programs and projects that are for the common good. We work hard to keep the lights on, and we work to keep rates low, invest in our local community and provide hometown jobs.

Reliability is our No. 1 job. Our crews work tirelessly to keep the power on and restore it quickly when outages occur. Through continued training and ongoing preventative care, we are prepared to act quickly and safely to restore power to Conway. We are the only utility in the state to be designated a platinum-level Reliable Public Power Provider by the American Public Power Association for demonstrating high proficiency in reliability, safety, workforce development and system improvement. 

Plus, our employees are dedicated and passionate about this community because it’s where they live too. As a public power provider, we also benefit from mutual aid agreements with other providers. Last year, our crews helped restore power in Jonesboro following tornado damage and in Louisiana after Hurricane Delta. Should a large outage occur, similar crews would travel to Conway to help restore power for our residents.

We focus on providing affordable electric rates, and on a national average, our rates are lower than industry competitors, saving money for citizens and businesses. We also consistently have the lowest residential rates in the state of Arkansas. Lower rates mean citizens have more available to spend on other goods and services, which boosts the local economy. 

We aren’t motivated by profits to sell more power, so we also provide energy-efficiency programs like energy audits and zero percent interest loans to benefit customers. Our revenues are reinvested into maintaining and upgrading our system’s substations, distribution lines and more so we’re able to safely deliver low-cost, reliable electricity. Keeping energy costs affordable serves our community’s long-term needs–and that’s what public power is all about. 

Conway Corp exists to serve the residents of Conway. We provide friendly, local service to customers. Customers can also call 24 hours a day, seven days a week and be connected to a customer service representative who is a local member of the community. We are responsive to customers’ needs and concerns and make customer service a priority. Recent data shows we keep the lights on 99.99 percent of the time, but when an outage does occur, we restore power quickly and efficiently because we’re located in the community we serve.

On average, our customers have fewer outages and have electricity restored sooner after an outage than the national average. We live here, and we have a vested interest in getting service restored as quickly and safely as possible. We’re accountable to our friends, neighbors and families.

Beth Jimmerson
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