DELIVERING YOUR ELECTRICITY

The Elecric System
The City of Brownsville is called a "Public Power" city because it owns and operates its own electric system. The City of Brownsville is the only "Public Power" city in the Rio Grande Valley. The other cities in the Rio Grande Valley get their electricity from either a private/investor-owned power company or an electric cooperative.

Brownsville's Electricity
Due to the area's unprecedented economic and population growth, the Silas Ray Power Plant could no longer meet all of Brownsville's power needs. To meet Brownsville's growing electricity demand, PUB bought 10 percent of the coal-fired power plant Oklaunion in Wichita Falls, Texas, which went into operation in 1986, and an additional 21 percent of the natural gas powered Hidalgo Energy Center in Edinburg, Texas in 1999. BPUB's three power plants can produce 253 megawatts for this bustling city, plus 10 megawatts of distributed generation and 45 megawatts once Unit 10 is installed.