The Town of Smyrna was first settled prior
to the American Revolution on the southern bank of Duck Creek
near the fork of Green’s Branch. Smyrna is located 12 miles north of the State Capital of
Dover and 30 miles south of Newark and Wilmington. Originally named “Salisbury”, the Delaware General
Assembly changed the name to the Town of Smyrna in 1806.
In 2001, the EIA reported that this
publicly owned municipal utility had nearly 2,960 customers and
sold a total of 50,922,000 kWh of electricity. The utility reported that by the end of 2002 the customer
base had increased to 3290 customers.
Although the utility offers no formal
energy efficiency or renewable energy programs, it has utilized
energy-saving educational bill inserts purchased from the American
Public Power Association (APPA) in the past.
The Town of Smyrna does provide rules for the parallel
operation of customer sited generation and co-generation but the
rules are not standardized and are managed on a case-by-case
basis. The utility offers no net energy metering rider at this time.
The Town of Smyrna annexed 1000 acres in 2003 and plans
to annex another 1000 acres in the future.
The utility estimates an additional 200 residential new
construction homes to be finished in the next year as well as
the one million square foot Wal-Mart Distribution Center.
Smyrna is a Delaware Municipal Electric Corporation
member and part owner of the Warren F. “Sam” Beasley Power Station, the 50 MW peak power
generating facility.
