Richard F. Joyce, Director Debra J. Healy, Business Manager Donald H. Newell, Superintendent Francisco Frias, Supervisory Electrical Engineer James Verner, Line Supervisor Peter Bracken, Line Supervisor
The Town of Wellesley Municipal Light Plant (WMLP) is a town department responsible for the transmission and supply of electricity to the residents and businesses in the town of Wellesley, Massachusetts. The headquarters of the WMLP is located at 455 Worcester Street, Wellesley, Massachusetts, and shares its grounds with the Wellesley Fire Department Headquarters and Town of Wellesley Department of Public Works.
The WMLP serves 9,954 customers, of whom 8,812 are residential, 1,138 are commercial, and 4 are industrial. The largest customers (by electric demand) are Wellesley College, Babson College, Harvard Pilgrim, Sun Life Financial, and Wellesley Office Park.
A municipal light plant does not produce electricity on its own. Power reaches the town through substations and transforms high voltage to working home and commercial distribution within a sector. The WMLP has historically had attractive rates compared to other suppliers in the region and has had long-term contracts with major generators. Today, the WMLP works on the national grid purchasing blocks of power under contracts over time. Current power is produced from Niagara Power of Canada and transferred to the US grid. About 80% to 90% of this power is produced via a hydro-electric dams from the Great Lakes and is among the least expensive and cleanest in the US. Subsequently, the electric rates in Wellesley are very cost effective and residents have attractive rates compared to other parts of the region, on a per mil watt cost per household.
History of the WMLP
The Wellesley Municipal Light Plant was founded on December 13, 1892, as the Wellesley Electric Light Division of the Town of Wellesley Department of Public Works. Unlike most municipal light plants at the time, the Town of Wellesley built an entirely new plant for its new electric division instead of buying existing facilities.
In 1892, Wellesley recorded a permanent population of 5,072 citizens. Wellesley Electric Light, however, serviced none of these people. In the beginning, Wellesley Electric Light purchased all of its current from the Natick Gas & Electric Company in neighboring Natick, Massachusetts, and devoted its capabilities exclusively to street lighting. A report from the Massachusetts Commission gives the first record of service to private customers in Wellesley on July 1, 1904, almost twelve years after the foundation of Wellesley Electric Light.
The Edison Electric Illuminating Company of Boston, or Boston Edison (BECo; now NSTAR), operated in Wellesley alongside the Wellesley Electric Light Division. From 1904 until 1906, BECo rendered commercial lighting services in the town. In 1906, Wellesley Electric Light took control of the commercial lighting in the town and has distributed and managed the current for commercial lighting ever since.
Wellesley's proximity to Boston and its strictly suburban feel instigated a population growth that gained intensity after World War II, akin to most other suburbs throughout the United States. As Wellesley's population increased and wealthier people moved into the town, Wellesley's infrastructure and commerce grew rapidly. These changes provided Wellesley Electric Light with more customers and greater revenue.
With the large amounts of money Wellesley Electric Light was accumulating, the department upgraded and built more of its electrical system with new substations, overhead powerlines, and underground electric lines to support the increasing electric use. In 1959 the substation on Weston Road (Station 378) was completed. This substation was modified in 1970 and completely reconstructed in 2005. In 1967 the substation on Cedar Street (Station 453) was built, and in 1968 a new substation (Station 41) was completed and began distributing power to Wellesley Hills, effectively halting the original substation's use.
Today, the WMLP has a total of 33 distribution lines throughout Wellesley and owns nine supply lines, six from the NSTAR substation in Newton, Massachusetts and three from the NSTAR substation in Needham, Massachusetts. The voltage supplied from the aforementioned substations in Newton and Needham enter Wellesley at 13,800 kV and are either distributed through the town at 13.8 kV or, through the substations and stepdown transformers, distributed at 4 kV.
Facts about the WMLP
The Wellesley Municipal Light Plant utilizes state of the art equipment and maintains a large facility for its machinery and stock.
The WMLP buildings are composed of a garage (which includes an outside transformer and cable yard, stockroom, and linemen's room), a utilities building, a "new" substation (Station 41), and an "old" substation. As of June 2007, the current WMLP garage is scheduled for demolition and a new garage was planned for construction. The "old" substation, which is an historical building dating back to the 1920s is primarily used for storage, while the "new" substation, built in 1968, serves its respective purpose. Aside from the substation on the grounds of the WMLP, it owns two other main substations throughout Wellesley. One of these substations (Station 378) was rebuilt and renovated with new equipment from 2005 to 2006.
Some of the WMLP fleet
The WMLP fleet consists of 23 vehicles. These vehicles are: two diggers, a forklift, two cable trucks (for underground electric lines), five bucket trucks, an electrician truck, a dump truck, a fire alarm/street light van, a meter reading van, four pickup trucks, and five management vehicles.
The WMLP holds a unique position within the municipality. For more than 100 years, the WMLP was officially a DPW department and known as the Wellesley Electric Light Division. However, in the year of 1994, the WMLP acquired independent town department status within the municipality and is a separate entity from the DPW. The WMLP answers to the Municipal Light Plant Board while the DPW answers to the Board of Public Works.
Devens
The WMLP services the recently established town of Devens, Massachusetts, located in the Montachusett region in Middlesex County. A large area of the Fort Devensarmy base was converted into a planned community in the late 1990s. The WMLP is responsible for the electrical supply of the approximately 120 residences and 180 commercial enterprises. The WMLP also maintains supply lines which provide electricity to the remaining Fort Devens military establishment. This contract, however, is complex due to security concerns. The military takes control of the supply lines at a certain point along the system and maintains and operates its own electrical infrastructure within the base.
Organization of the WMLP
The WMLP is a town department, composed of 37 employees working in management, customer service, and electric line work positions.
The WMLP management consists of a director, business manager, superintendent, supervisory electrical engineer, and two line supervisors (one of whom is responsible for Devens). The WMLP also employs an accountant, construction engineer, office assistant, and six customer service representatives. The director of the WMLP is Richard F. Joyce, the business manager is Debra J. Healy, and the superintendent is Donald H. Newell.
The WMLP employs 14 electric line workers. These include three crew leaders, six first class linemen, three second class linemen, one lead cable splicer, and one apprentice lineman. In addition to the line workers, the WMLP employs a lead meter reader, two substation operators, a full-time stockkeeper, a part-time stockkeeper, an engineering technician, a fire alarm/traffic signal specialist, and a Class A electrician.
This information is correct as of July 1, 2007.
Safety at the WMLP
The WMLP retains a good safety record, with streaks of 568 days and 998 days without a work-related injury. The current record of the WMLP is 633 days (as of June 26, 2007). This is a notable feat, as electric line work is rated 8 in the top 10 most dangerous jobs in the United States.[1]
The WMLP makes it mandatory that all of its employees attend frequent safety presentations and that they practice real-world safety operations, both planned and unplanned. In addition to the various safety presentations and demonstrations, the WMLP has a safety committee that meets monthly.
Miscellaneous facts
The Net Worth of the WMLP is $74,701,176 as of July 2007.
Electric power transmission is the bulk movement of electrical energy from a generating site, such as a power plant, to an electrical substation. The interconnected lines that facilitate this movement form a transmission network. This is distinct from the local wiring between high-voltage substations and customers, which is typically referred to as electric power distribution. The combined transmission and distribution network is part of electricity delivery, known as the electrical grid.
Mains electricity or utility power, grid power, domestic power, and wall power, or, in some parts of Canada, hydro, is a general-purpose alternating-current (AC) electric power supply. It is the form of electrical power that is delivered to homes and businesses through the electrical grid in many parts of the world. People use this electricity to power everyday items by plugging them into a wall outlet.
Electric power distribution is the final stage in the delivery of electricity. Electricity is carried from the transmission system to individual consumers. Distribution substations connect to the transmission system and lower the transmission voltage to medium voltage ranging between 2 kV and 33 kV with the use of transformers. Primary distribution lines carry this medium voltage power to distribution transformers located near the customer's premises. Distribution transformers again lower the voltage to the utilization voltage used by lighting, industrial equipment and household appliances. Often several customers are supplied from one transformer through secondary distribution lines. Commercial and residential customers are connected to the secondary distribution lines through service drops. Customers demanding a much larger amount of power may be connected directly to the primary distribution level or the subtransmission level.
The electric power industry covers the generation, transmission, distribution and sale of electric power to the general public and industry. The commercial distribution of electric power started in 1882 when electricity was produced for electric lighting. In the 1880s and 1890s, growing economic and safety concerns lead to the regulation of the industry. What was once an expensive novelty limited to the most densely populated areas, reliable and economical electric power has become an essential aspect for normal operation of all elements of developed economies.
A substation is a part of an electrical generation, transmission, and distribution system. Substations transform voltage from high to low, or the reverse, or perform any of several other important functions. Between the generating station and consumer, electric power may flow through several substations at different voltage levels. A substation may include transformers to change voltage levels between high transmission voltages and lower distribution voltages, or at the interconnection of two different transmission voltages. They are a common component of the infrastructure. There are 55,000 substations in the United States.
The war of the currents was a series of events surrounding the introduction of competing electric power transmission systems in the late 1880s and early 1890s. It grew out of two lighting systems developed in the late 1870s and early 1880s; arc lamp street lighting running on high-voltage alternating current (AC), and large-scale low-voltage direct current (DC) indoor incandescent lighting being marketed by Thomas Edison's company. In 1886, the Edison system was faced with new competition: an alternating current system initially introduced by George Westinghouse's company that used transformers to step down from a high voltage so AC could be used for indoor lighting. Using high voltage allowed an AC system to transmit power over longer distances from more efficient large central generating stations. As the use of AC spread rapidly with other companies deploying their own systems, the Edison Electric Light Company claimed in early 1888 that high voltages used in an alternating current system were hazardous, and that the design was inferior to, and infringed on the patents behind, their direct current system.
NSTAR was a utility company that provided retail electricity and natural gas to 1.4 million customers in eastern and central Massachusetts, including the Boston urban area. NSTAR became a subsidiary of Northeast Utilities in April 2012. In February 2015, Northeast Utilities and all of its operating companies became one large company known as Eversource Energy.
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The Tanzania Electric Supply Company Limited (TANESCO) is a Tanzanian parastatal organisation established in 1964. It is wholly owned by the government of Tanzania. The Ministry of Energy and Minerals regulates the operations of TANESCO.
Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) is an Indian public sector undertaking under the Government of Kerala that generates, transmits and distributes electricity in the state. Established in 1957, the agency comes under the authority of the Department of Power. It has been registered under Indian Companies Act 1956 in January 2011.
Wyandotte Municipal Services is a not-for-profit service provider located in Wyandotte, Michigan. The services that WMS provides are electric, cable telecommunications, and water supply and treatment to the City of Wyandotte. WMS was created by local residents more than 100 years ago. The City of Wyandotte, Michigan is the only community to own and operate its own power plant, water treatment plant, and cable TV headend.
Electric power transmission, the tools and means of moving electricity far from where it is generated, date back to the late 19th century. They include the movement of electricity in bulk and the delivery of electricity to individual customers ("distribution"). In the beginning, the two terms were used interchangeably.
Hydro Ottawa Limited is a regulated electricity distribution company operating in the City of Ottawa and the Village of Casselman in Ontario, Canada. As the third-largest municipally-owned electrical utility in Ontario, Hydro Ottawa maintains the electricity distribution systems in the city, and serves over 335,000 residential and commercial customers across a service area of 1,100 square kilometres.
An electrical grid is an interconnected network for electricity delivery from producers to consumers. Electrical grids consist of power stations, electrical substations to step voltage up or down, electric power transmission to carry power over long distances, and finally electric power distribution to customers. In that last step, voltage is stepped down again to the required service voltage. Power stations are typically built close to energy sources and far from densely populated areas. Electrical grids vary in size and can cover whole countries or continents. From small to large there are microgrids, wide area synchronous grids, and super grids. The combined transmission and distribution network is part of electricity delivery, known as the power grid.
Vermont electric power needs are served by over twenty utilities. The largest is Green Mountain Power, a subsidiary of Énergir which recently also took over Central Vermont Public Service. Together this single company represents 70% of the retail customers in Vermont. The state is a small electricity consumer compared with other states. Therefore, its electricity sector has the lowest carbon footprint in the country. As of 2010, the state had the lowest wholesale electricity costs in New England. Efficiency Vermont engages in aggressive initiatives to cut residential electricity waste, which often identifies other problems that it claims can save hundreds per household per year. Accordingly, Vermont's overall energy bills are also relatively lower than in the rest of the New England states.
The provision of electricity in Queensland required a considerable degree of pioneering, innovation, and commitment. Queensland proved to be a pioneer in the supply of electricity in Australia, with the first public demonstration in Australia, the first recorded use for public purposes in the country, the first Parliament House in Australia and the first commercial operations in Australia all occurring in Brisbane.
Electricity Ashburton Limited, trading as EA Networks is a co-operatively-owned electricity distribution company, based in Ashburton, New Zealand.
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Dorau, Herbert B., "Municipal Ownership in the Electric Light and Power Industry of Massachusetts", The Journal of Land & Public Utility Economics, Vol. 3, No. 3. (August 1927), pp.298–307.
Municipal Electric Lighting, Publications of the American Statistical Association, Vol. 5, No. 40 (December 1897), pp.381–382.
Porter, Charles H., "A Comparison of Public and Private Electric Utilities in Massachusetts",
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Wellesley, Massachusetts 
