Fewer Outages Spark Increased Productivity: Why Major Power Users Choose To Operate In Garland, Texas

As the home to more than 300 manufacturing companies, Garland is among the top industrial cities in Texas. With more than 10% of the city’s workforce employed in manufacturing, its industrial sector has been an integral part of its economy for decades — and Garland Power & Light has been powering this growth for a century.

Whether manufacturing food and beverage products, semiconductors or medical equipment, there’s one thing companies have in common: the need for reliable access to electricity.

Meeting the electrical service needs of a city with nearly 250,000 residents and hundreds of businesses is no small feat. But as one of the state’s largest municipal electric utilities, Garland Power & Light is up to the task. Founded in 1923, the company originally serviced around 300 customers. Today, the utility provides power to more than 73,000 customers.

“Garland Power & Light has the sophistication and technical capabilities to meet the needs of its customers, especially large load customers like industrial facilities and data centers,” General Manager and CEO of Garland Power & Light Darrell Cline said. “We're small enough so that there's close access to the decision-makers, making for a more personalized experience.” 

Given the city’s historic industrial roots, several manufacturing companies have announced plans to expand operations into Garland, including Cosmax NBT. This business joined an extensive list of manufacturers already located in the city, such as Resistol Hats since 1938, Kraft Foods since 1945 and Micropac Industries since 1963.

Over the past few years, major industrial expansion from some of the city's most enterprising companies, including Revolving Kitchen, Stream Data Centers and Plastipak, has taken place in order to meet the needs of the evolving market. Each of these businesses has expanded the physical presence of their companies to accommodate for greater market demand. Put simply, business in Garland is booming.

Major power users looking to set up shop within the city find the utility’s reliability metrics to be unparalleled, based on the relatively low number of outages and length of outages, Cline said.

From a business point of view, fewer outages mean greater operational efficiency, with less risk of interruptions from power outages. For facilities like data centers, where every minute they are down could result in hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost revenue, reliable power is key.

“When you look at the metrics that are associated with reliability, we historically have greatly outperformed those of similar size and capacity,” he said. “From a reliability standpoint, we beat industry standards.”

Cline said that the utility also remains the top provider for manufacturers across the city because it maintains competitive rates and evolves to meet the needs of its business community. As the utility celebrates its 100th anniversary this year, Garland Power & Light is keeping pace with the evolving market by investing in electricity generated from renewable energy sources such as solar and wind, Cline said. 

“In addition to our natural gas-fired plants, we have long-term purchase power agreements for solar and wind, with three of these agreements for solar power coming out of the west Texas area,” he said. “We have two for wind in the south Texas area, and then two in the panhandle of Texas. Our resources are spread across the state, both for renewable and traditional generation such as natural gas-fired plants.”

Recognizing that Texas is the No. 1 consumer of electricity in the nation, Garland Power & Light started offering the Green Choice option to its commercial customers several years ago. Cline said the company has been very proactive in trying to make this option affordable to its customers, costing just 1 cent more per kilowatt-hour than its standard rate.

Cline added that as industry across the city continues to expand and take steps toward revitalization, Garland Light & Power can help enhance the local economy by providing both traditionally and alternatively sourced electricity to businesses.

“Businesses that have supported Garland Power & Light in its efforts to make both traditional and sustainable electric sources available for its customers have helped make Garland Power & Light the vibrant utility it is today,” he said.

Looking forward, Cline predicts that Garland will continue to be an attractive location for companies for years to come — especially as the city continues to revitalize its downtown spaces and commercial infrastructure.

This article was produced in collaboration between the city of Garland, Texas, and Studio B. Bisnow news staff was not involved in the production of this content.

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