From Scott Carlberg
Santee Cooper is at the top of the chart. On CEO pay.
Some background. The power system of the City of San Antonio was in the news as it considered the salary of its electric power executive. It looked at other public power CEO salaries. Santee Cooper was noted. The report and its data are worth noting in South Carolina since energy finance issues have been in the news so much.
The data show the name of the public power company, number of customers , the executive salary and how that CEO salary breaks out “per customer.” That table is below.
On a related note about CEO pay, some years ago when Jim Rogers became the CEO of Duke Energy he committed to a compensation package with no salary. His compensation was based on how well the company, the stock, did. If the company did poorly, he did not do well. If the company did well, so did he. Interesting. Certainly, Duke Energy is a public company and Santee Cooper is not. Some creativity could be applied.
Here is the data about CEO pay in public power organizations.
For the table below – *CEO salary info **Customer base source
*** Santee Cooper direct serve customers; does not include co-op customers whose power is bought from Santee Cooper by Central Electric Power Cooperative and distributed by electric cooperatives.
| Public Energy Utility | CEO base salary* | Customer base** | CEO salary per customer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Santee Cooper*** | $1,100,000 | 176,776 | $6.22 |
| Colorado Springs Utilities | $480,000 | 225,406 | $2.13 |
| Orlando Utilities Commission | $450,000 | 231,229 | $1.95 |
| Tacoma Public Utilities | $330,158 | 176,781 | $1.87 |
| Omaha Public Power District | $566,368 | 369,485 | $1.53 |
| Knoxville Utilities Board | $295,000 | 199,984 | $1.48 |
| Clark Public Utilities (Wash) | $240,000 | 199,623 | $1.2 |
| Snohomish County Public Util. Dist. (Wash) | $401,951 | 341,109 | $1.18 |
| Nashville Electric Service (2018) | $448,970 | 384,986 | $1.17 |
| Salt River Project (Arizona) (2018) | $1,004,000 | 1,029,831 | $0.97 |
| Sacramento Municipal Utility District | $518,410 | 619,622 | $0.84 |
| Austin Energy | $378,248 | 464,322 | $0.81 |
| Seattle City Light | $340,000 | 435,361 | $0.78 |
| Memphis Light/Gas/Water Div. (2018) | $320,000 | 409,814 | $0.78 |
| JEA (Jacksonville, FL) | $330,000 | 453,703 | $0.73 |
| CPS Energy | $485,850 | 794,768 | $0.61 |
| Long Island Power Authority | $289,103 | 1,122,226 | $0.26 |
| Los Angeles Department of Water/Power | $364,762 | 1,419,468 | $0.26 |
| Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority | $250,000 | 1,459,693 | $0.17 |
