Municipal Power--Comparison with Other Cities
Ann Arbor residents deciding whether to support Ann Arbor for Public Power—the proposed municipal takeover of electricity service from DTE—will be interested in the experience of other municipalities that have pursued municipalization since 2000. I identified fifteen such municipalities. Of those, only two ultimately completed the transition.
In 2026 dollars, the cost per electric connection to the Investor-Owned Utility was $4,945 in one case (financed through utility bonds repaid by ratepayers) and $8,434 in the other (financed primarily by the federal government).
The clearest success story is Winter Park, Florida, which completed the transition in five years and ultimately delivered lower rates and more reliable service than Duke Energy.
The clearest failure is Boulder, Colorado, which spent ten years and approximately $30 million on its municipalization effort before pausing the project without completing the transition.
All details and sources are included in the linked spreadsheet.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1hi9YXMcnYaTgjZJzfCNMLmwpDYlucUv5eFP2EX5ndYk/edit?usp=sharing