SPRINGFIELD – Springfield Utility Board (SUB) leaders and staff are ready to celebrate customers during National Public Power Week, offering free coffee as a token of appreciation while also marking its 75th anniversary of service to the community.
The weeklong event, running from Oct. 6-11, highlights the importance of publicly owned utilities in fostering community engagement. SUB serves 33,467 customers – more than half of Springfield’s population.
SUB plans to “espresso” thanks to the community by giving away free coffee, said Zak Gosa-Lewis, content and marketing communications specialist.
“SUB is all about a tradition … The coffee week has been our traditional celebration for decades, and our community starts calling to ask about it as soon as the weather turns,” he said.
On Oct. 6-7, a free cup of coffee or cocoa for SUB’s customer-owners will be available at SUB’s Main Office Annex, 223 A St. Customers can grab a cup of joe at the Bob Keefer Center at 250 S. 32nd St. on Oct. 8-9, and on Oct. 10-11, SUB will be at Splash! At Lively Park at 6100 Thurston Rd.
On display at the Springfield History Museum is the exhibit “PosSUBilities: 75 Years of the Springfield Utility Board,” which will be on display until Dec. 27, and features an array of stories, photographs, and artifacts.
The museum is open from Thursday to Saturday, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. and admission is free.
Additionally, visitors can view the exhibit during the Downtown Springfield Second Friday Art Walk on Oct. 10 from 5-7 p.m.
In other SUB-related news, the Springfield Chamber hosted a roundtable and tour on Tuesday, Sept. 23, to view the museum’s exhibit and see SUB’s ninth substation in Glenwood.
The Glenwood Substation project began in the early 2000s with the acquisition of the Alvey-Springfield 115kV transmission line from the Bonneville Power Administration and the Glenwood territory from the Eugene Water and Electric Board. The board first broke ground on the substation in 2023, and in ’24, a transformer from the East Coast was delivered. The transformer itself took a year to build and weighs almost 118,000 pounds. SUB’s goal is to have the substation fully operational by 2026.
Once complete, it will distribute electricity to the roughly 800 homes and businesses already in Glenwood, add capacity for future development in the area, and provide resiliency to other neighborhoods. The substation will convert high-voltage electricity to be spread throughout the city from three major distribution lines.
