Electrical Department

History

Brownfield Municipal Power and Light has been the electric service supplier for the City of Brownfield since the early 1920s. During the 1920s when much of rural Texas was still without electricity, the town of Brownfield took a leap toward modernization, the town incorporated in 1920 and one year later held a vote on the issuance of bonds for the creation of a power plant. Citizens voted against the proposal, but undeterred, a group of residents formed a light and ice company. {Many electrical plants of the time were linked to ice manufacturing} and worked to get a bond package in 1921, voters overwhelmingly approved new bonds for a Municipal Power Plant, Building soon began, and by 1923, Brownfield had electricity.

Expansion

In 1977 the city completed an interconnect facility to purchase a portion of its electrical needs from Southwestern Public Service Company. The interconnect had the capability of handling 22.5 megawatts of power. In 2004 the City purchased a second transformer to match the existing Transformer, the interconnect now has a nameplate capacity of 42.5 MW. Thus alleviating any possible stress the interconnect may be experiencing during the summer months. Due to the advantages of economy power purchasing from the investor-owned utility, the city presently purchases about 100% of its power through the interconnect. The record peak load for the system is 20.8 megawatts in the summer of 2011.

West Texas Municipal Power Agency

To ensure power availability in the future, Brownfield helped create a joint action agency, the West Texas Municipal Power Agency, along with the cities of Lubbock, Tulia, and Floydada. This entity works to ensure an adequate power supply to its member cities. The member cities have recently agreed to lease the JRM#8 gas turbine located in Lubbock, TX to the City of Lubbock in exchange for Lubbock taking on the debt and expenses of the turbine. 

The Department

Staff

The Electrical Department is organized under Superintendent Cat Gonzalez to install and maintain the power lines, transformers, power plant/sub-station, and other items associated with the system. There are ten full-time personnel in the Electric Department including Mr. Davis. 

Equipment

This department operates with a fleet of several pickups for supervisory and service personnel plus 3 aerial lift units, a 55-foot Versalift mounted on a 2009 F-750 diesel truck, a 55 foot Terex mounted on a 2011 Ford F-750 diesel-powered truck, and a 42 foot ETI on a 2011 Ford F550 diesel-powered truck. The fourth major piece of equipment used by this department is a 2003 Terex digger derrick mounted on a 2003 International diesel truck. 

Safety Program

This department participates in a safety program operated by the Texas Electric Cooperatives Loss Control Program headquartered in Austin, Texas, and receives eight safety presentations each year from professional safety personnel. All personnel in the department are required to attend the training which is conducted during work hours.

Provided Service

The personnel in the Electric Department provide a 24-hour a day, 7 day a week on-call service for emergencies or power outages. In 2010, a total of 71386-megawatt hours (MWH) were delivered to the city's 4,092 customers yielding a gross metered sales revenue of $7,548,000.