| Sacramento Municipal Utility District |
Articles about Smud |
Information AboutSacramento Municipal Utility District |
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| power companies of the united states | |
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| SHOPPER'S DELIGHT | |
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Created by a vote of Sacramento County residents in 1923, SMUD's ability to provide power to its customer-owners was stymied in the courts for nearly a quarter-century by the investor-owned Pacific Gas & Electric company of San Francisco. A court ruling eventually sided with SMUD, which began providing power at the beginning of 1946. Echoes of SMUD's fight to fulfill its original mandate from the voters have continued in more recent turf battles with PG&E, which fought to prevent the residents of the Sacramento bedroom community of Folsom from joining in the '80s, and is now fighting to prevent voters in adjacent Yolo county from joining SMUD. SMUD's Electricity Generation capacity consists mostly of Hydroelectric plants on the American River . The plants are run during hours of Peak demand, though retaining sufficient Flood control capacity dictates water releases to some extent. SMUD also owns the first of potentially two Natural Gas Power Plant s, as well as Wind-powered and Solar-powered electric generation facilities. In addition, the utility owns some small gas-fired Peaker Plants for meeting the highest energy demands, typically on Sacramento's notably blistering summer days. SMUD's headquarters building, built in the late 1950s on the edge of the East Sacramento neighborhood, is notable for its mural by Sacramento artist Wayne Thiebaud . The mural wraps around the ground floor of the building and is accessible to the public. It is one of the earliest major works by the artist, and remains his largest installation to date. EXTERNAL LINKS |