In Grand Haven, the city runs your electricity (and melts the downtown snow)

If you buy in the city of Grand Haven, your electric service comes from the city’s own utility — the Grand Haven Board of Light & Power, usually called the BLP — rather than a big company like Consumers Energy or DTE. The BLP has powered the city since 1896. For most of that time it made its own electricity at the coal-fired J.B. Sims plant on Harbor Island, but the city shut that plant down in 2020; the BLP now buys its power from the regional grid instead. (A plan to build a new gas-fired plant on the old Sims site was later dropped.) For you as a customer, the day-to-day difference is mostly who sends your bill and who you call about an outage — but it’s worth knowing your provider is the local utility, not a statewide one.

Like nearby Holland, Grand Haven also runs a downtown snowmelt system — pipes under the main downtown streets and sidewalks that circulate warm water to keep them clear of snow and ice in winter. It’s a nice perk if you live or work right downtown, though your own home almost certainly won’t be on it.