Electric

Hours of Operation: Monday thru Friday, 7:00am – 3:30pm
Phone: 610-683-6131
Fax: 610-683-9076
Email: Contact Online

About the Department

The Borough of Kutztown is one of 35 municipally-owned electric systems in Pennsylvania. With its roots dating back to the early 1900s, the Electric Department has always prided itself with providing safe and reliable electric service to the residents of Kutztown. As was the case during Hurricane Sandy, the customers affected by the storm had their power restored by 4:00 a.m. that day.

Kutztown’s line workers are trained and certified in Ohio, at American Municipal Power (AMP), and they maintain the 13,800 volt lines, poles and transformers that exist in the Borough as well as underground facilities and street lighting. The Electric Department also maintains the 69,000 volt line that feeds the Foundry.

When comparing electric rates, use the “All In” method (click here for more info) by dividing your total bill, in dollars and cents, by the total amount of kilowatt hours used, and keep in mind that the Electric Department funds generated help the Borough maintain one of the lowest municipal tax rates in Berks County. The electric rates help to fund the General Fund, which includes but is not limited to Streets, Police, Parks and Pools. While you might pay slightly more to the Borough for electricity than a friend or neighbor might pay to Med-Ed or PPL, you also benefit from an extremely reliable system, with a dedicated five man crew, that is always available to address any system issues immediately. Our system is known to have very few outages, and when we do, we get service restored in very little time.

Tree trimming greatly reduces the chance of electric outages. The Borough electric department does its own tree trimming to eliminate the cost of having an outside contractor do the work. If you notice that trees on your property are growing into electric lines, please call the Electric Department to have them maintained.

The Borough buys its power at 69,000 volts and on average purchases 44,000,000 kilowatt hours per year from AMP. The Borough currently supplies power to approximately 2,500 electric meters and the Electric Department maintains the Automated Meter Reading (AMR) system which gives customers access to valuable information about their electric usage.

The Pennsylvania Municipal Electric Association (PMEA) is the trade association representing the Boroughs in Pennsylvania which own and operate electric distribution systems. For more information, please visit their Web site at http://www.pmea.us/.