SMUD's History
SMUD has been going strong for 60 years, providing public power to Sacramento, and keeping its promises of low rates, reliable service and local control.
The years after voters created SMUD in 1923 were filled with engineering studies, political battles, elections and court filings. In March 1946, the California Supreme Court refused PG&E's final petition, and PG&E finally sold its distribution system at the price fixed by the Railroad Commission.
1940s: SMUD hits the ground running
The sales contract was signed in April, 1946. In the next eight months, SMUD built an organization of more than 400 linemen, engineers, electricians, managers and office workers to take over operation of Sacramento's electric system.
SMUD's new employees faced daunting challenges in 1946. The electric distribution system that had taken so long to acquire was old, some of its dating back to 1895. It was a jumble of competing systems that had been merged into PG&E. More
1950s: Sacramento booms like never before
The pace only quickened in the 1950s, when Sacramento saw a burst of growth. In SMUD's first 15 years of service, the number of customers grew from 65,000 to 170,000. Electrical use more than tripled. The Cold War fueled expansion of Sacramento's military bases, driving thousands of newcomers to freshly built suburbs. More
1960s: Smart planning pays off
The hard work and smart moves made in the 1950s paid off. By 1961, SMUD had lowered its rates three times. Sacramento's electric rates were among the lowest in the United States, and SMUD customers enjoyed one of the best reliability rates in the country. More
1970s: Energy crisis, drought pose challenges
Sacramentans were no different from people all across the country. They saw electricity as a boundless resource and expected to have lavish supplies at their disposal. That view ended abruptly in the 1970s. More
1980s: How to plan for the future?
The turmoil of the late 1970s continued into the 1980s. It wasn't an easy time to plan for Sacramento's future energy usage. How much electricity would SMUD need to provide, and how quickly? SMUD turned to its customer-owners for input. More
1990s: Moving into leadership on green energy, conservation
The various measures SMUD took in the 1970s and '80s began to pay off in the '90s. The opening of the Energy Management Center allowed SMUD to make its own minute-by-minute decisions on buying power and managing energy resources. To replace nuclear power, the SMUD Board moved away from the concept of a large central plant toward diverse power sources, such as cogeneration plants, wind power, low-cost purchased power and research and development of renewable resources and advanced technologies like solar, fuel cells, gas turbines and biomass. More
New century: Customers insulated from market chaos
The state-mandated deregulation of the electric utility industry brought power shortages, soaring wholesale energy costs and rotating outages.
SMUD found itself tied as never before to statewide difficulties in maintaining reliable electricity supplies, and in 2000 was forced to shut down power in rotating outages on seven days. By the following year, SMUD was putting plans into place to make the utility its own control area, thereby pulling away from requirements to shut down power to customers in all but extreme cases of statewide grid instability. More