Electric Utility

Public Utility Operations

The Village of Merrillan operates its own public electric utility. We are a member of the UMMEG joint action agency. This includes municipalities like ours, Arcadia, Cashton, New Lisbon, and many others. This group runs and operates many of their own power generation facilities, such as hydro, diesel, solar, natural gas, and so forth. We negotiate pricing within our own group along with wholesale providers like Dairyland Power. This keeps rates low for citizens. Our main feeder line to the Village is owned and maintained by Jackson Electric, who we pay for transmission capacity.

Resources & Additional Information

The Village of Merrillan purchases power from projects that are renewable energy, such as wind and solar. The difference in capacity that is not met with these projects is then purchased from Dairyland Power Cooperative. This allows the Village to keep rates stable and lower for residents.

The Village also owns and operates its own hydro-electric dam on Lower Lake, generating on average 30 kW and up to about 70 kW. Hydro Reform Project Details

The Village also owns and operates a diesel generator that can be operated during high capacity or peak events. This prevents blackouts by mitigating strain on the grid.

Our main feed into the Village is on transmission lines owned by Jackson Electric. If there is an outage affecting these power lines, it can affect the Village.