Meeting Gainesville's Energy Needs Today and Tomorrow
GRU owns and operates four main power plants: the 118-MW John R. Kelly Generating Station, located downtown, and the 429-MW Deerhaven Generating Station, and the 102.5-MW Deerhaven Renewable Generating Station which are both located in north Gainesville. These facilities, along with our 11.5-MW South Energy Center, give us a total generation capability of more than 550 MW*.
GRU has a diversity of fuel sources: we have our biomass plant which uses wood chips, we burn natural gas, fuel oil and low-sulfur coal at our plants to produce electricity in an environmentally responsible manner. Our Solar-FIT program incentivized customers to invest in their own solar photovoltaic systems in order to produce energy that GRU buys back as well. The fuel source diversity allows GRU to provide our customers with reliable electric service.
Today, as a publicly owned utility, we serve approximately 99,700 customers with a service area of 124 square miles. Our electric distribution lines cover 1,417 total circuit miles. Sixty percent of our electric distribution lines are now located underground to enhance the community's beauty and increase reliability.
* Net summer generation capability