Disclaimer: This is my personal understanding of how everything works. This is not an official publication of either GP&L or the City of Garland, and does not represent the opinion of the Garland City Council.
Here are my answers to the questions and criticisms I receive the most often:
How does GP&L work?
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My bill is high. Why?
Remember that we send out a combined bill with ALL of your utilities on it. It includes Water, Sewer, Stormwater Management, Environmental Waste Services, and Electric. If you’re comparing your power bill now to one with a previous provider, make sure you are comparing just the electric portion. Our cost hovers around $0.10/kwh and has for years.
Here’s how we compare to everyone else in the Oncor service area:
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The summer A/C usage is killing me financially. How do you deal with that?
Below is my household’s bill for June 2021 (with the account information removed). I write a check for the same amount all year long to help with summer costs. I get ahead in the fall and winter, and that extra balance gets eaten up in the summer. It helps level out the cost of the Texas summer heat.
You guys really dropped the ball during the 2021 Winter Storm
We had a few places where we could have improved. Here’s my blog post on the issue:
https://www.robertjsmithtx.com/index.php/2021/02/18/winter-storm-aftermath/
It isn’t a quick process, but work is very much in progress on fixing each of the things I listed in that article.
You guys had to have raised your rates to pay for Snowvid (the 2021 Winter Storm), right?
Nope. We have a savings account called the ‘rate mitigation fund’ that we pulled from to cover the loss. If we have a good year by selling power at a premium to non-Garland customers, we bank the windfall into that account and use it to keep Garland’s rates down.
2021 Winter Storm: Why couldn’t we just use our own power that we generate?
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You suck! GP&L sucks!
I have teenage daughters that beat you to that observation a long time ago.
GP&L however, is pretty good by comparison. It’s nice that the money collected by GP&L literally goes back into the rate-payers pockets instead of an out of state or international owner’s. We experience quite a bit less down time than other providers, and you get to elect the board of directors directly (city council) every two years.
If you have additional questions, or have come up with new and creative things that I “haven’t” been called before, please feel free to reach out to me at council8@garlandtx.gov.