2024 Economic Impact Awards 75+ Years in Business Top Honors: City Utilities of Springfield

City Utilities of Springfield is unique in its scope, according to President and CEO Gary Gibson.

In fact, he says, it’s the only municipal utility in the nation that provides five essential services: electric, natural gas, water, broadband and transit. It is also one of the largest public power utilities in the country.

“This utility is owned by our community – owned by our neighbors,” he says. “I love that. We don’t have shareholders we have to return value to. Our neighbors are our shareholders.”

As a result, Gibson says, CU gets to make its decisions in Springfield, instead of in a boardroom thousands of miles away.

“It’s all about advancing quality of life in Springfield,” he says.

The work is done by some 944 employees who function mostly in the background, Gibson says.

“If we’re doing our job, people don’t think about us. They get up in the morning and flip on the light switch and they’ve got power; they turn on the faucet and water comes out; they turn the heat on and it gets warm,” he says.

The utility was founded in 1945, as World War II was coming to a close, and when the Queen City was traversed by electric trolleys. Before CU, the energy used for those trolleys was provided by a privately owned electric company, Gibson said.

At the time the city of Springfield bought the electric company – and enshrined in the city charter the guarantee that CU would operate the public transit system – the trolleys were providing 12 million rides per year. However, a postwar boom in automobiles lessened the city’s reliance on public transit, which today provides a little over 1 million rides per year, Gibson says.

“You can still see vestiges of the old electric streetcars around town, if you know what you’re looking for,” he says.

The most notable vestige is the bus system itself.

“We’re the only municipal utility that also runs a transit system that we’re aware of,” he says.

CU’s strategic plan has a focus on environmental stewardship, Gibson says, noting the electric utility has set a target for 70% carbon reduction from 2005 levels by 2035 and the goal of being carbon neutral by 2050.

“In this budget year, we’ll probably be right at 40% of energy used by Springfieldians coming from renewable resources,” he says. “I do believe we lead the state.”

Renewable energy is a goal CU always pursues with an eye on cost, Gibson says.

“We’ve been able to do that intentionally over time, and also in a way that doesn’t substantially increase costs for our customers,” he says.