JEA
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| JEA, Inc. | |
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 |
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| Type | Public benefit corporation |
| Founded | 1968 |
| Headquarters | Jacksonville, Florida, USA |
| Key people | James A. Dickenson, CEO & Managing Director Paul McElroy, CFO James M. Chansler, COO [1] |
| Industry | Public Utility |
| Products | Electric utility, Drinking water, Sewage treatment, Chilled water |
| Revenue | $1.44 billion (2007) |
| Employees | 2,356 (2007) [2] |
| Website | www.jea.com |
JEA (formerly Jacksonville Electric Authority), located in Jacksonville, Florida, is the eighth largest community-owned electric utility company in the United States and largest in Florida. As of July, 2007 they were serving more than 409,000 electric customers, 303,000 water customers and 228,000 sewer customers.[3]Besides Jacksonville (Duval County), JEA also has customers in Clay, Nassau and St. Johns counties.
- Electricity: owns/operates three generating plants and all transmission and distribution facilities; co-owns two additional power plants with Florida Power & Light Company. JEA also operates a methane-fueled generating facility at the Girvin Road Landfill. JEA's net generating capability is 2,361 megawatts. All-time peak demand was 3,166 megawatts on January 24, 2003.
- Water: 150 artesian wells tapping the Floridan Aquifer are distributed through 44 water treatment plants to provide 80 million gallons of clean water each day through 3,480 miles of water lines.
- Sewer: 2,500 miles of collection lines and six regional sewage treatment plants which handle more than 60 million gallons of wastewater per day.
[edit] History
The City of Jacksonville established an electric system in 1895. The electric system grew with the city, but remained a department of city government until an independent authority was created by the consolidation of city and county governments in 1967. During the 1970's, JEA's electric rates were among the highest in the nation. There were reports of customers with electric bills higher than their mortgage payments.
Royce Lyles became JEA Managing Director on September 1, 1979 and the utility began diversifying its fuel mix. Rates began to drop, eventually becoming the lowest in the state and near the bottom in the Southeast. JEA became an admired and respected organization.
Walt Bussells was appointed Managing Director on September 8, 1995, following Royce Lyles' retirement. Jacksonville's water and sewer systems had been operated by the city since 1880. On June 1, 1997, the City of Jacksonville, Department of Public Utilities, water and sewer operations merged into JEA. Since the Jacksonville Electric Authority was also operating other utilities, they requested a name change to the initials, JEA and the City Council approved it on September 23, 1998. Walt Bussells embraced technology and in 2002, JEA introducted online bill payment and implemented network meter reading.
Jim Dickenson replaced Walt Bussells when he retired in 2004. Since that year, JEA has assessed fuel rate increases three times. In 2007, JEA still had the second-lowest electric rates in Florida before they announced a four-year base rate increase package that will bring the average bill from $112 to more than $140 in 2010. Most utilities have been forced to raise their rates due to increased fuel costs, but this rate increase was designed to reduce the utility's debt, currently at $6.0 Billion compared to assets of $7.5 Billion. One of the reasons utility rates stayed low for so long was due to reliance on debt for capital improvements. Compared to other similar sized municipal utilities, JEA has 60% more debt per customer.
