Vinton Municipal Electric Utility

Phone (319) 472-4813 or 4722-3663

VMEU SERVICES

VMEU sells electricity for residential, commercial and industrial use in most of Vinton's city limits. Some areas on the edges of city limits may be served by East Central Iowa Rural Electric Company or Alliant Energy. If you have any questions about who will serve your residence or business check with the Utility Manager or Power Line Foreman. Their contact information can be found on the Contact Us page. VMEU provides street lighting, security lighting, tree trimming around electrical wires and many other services related to the sale of electricity to the public.
 
Other services that VMEU provides for the community are numerous. VMEU provides maintenance on lighting at the city parks, city hall and airport. VMEU provides help to our local hospital for Christmas decorations and other lighting events and is responsible for city street light Christmas decoration installation and maintenance. VMEU staff also provides computer help to city departments and helps with limited maintenance on the clock in front of the US Bank building.

Most years  VMEU contributes to the City of Vinton a Municipal Electric Transfer Replacement Tax in place of city property taxes. The payment is normally a monthly contribution based upon the average of the last five years annual contribution to the city divided by the last years taxable kilowatt-hours delivered to our customers. Payment is made if there are surplus funds in the utility budget. Do to budget constraints caused by several large capital project investments the Utility Board suspended contributions in 2011 and resumed them in 2013. The current contribution rate is $7,000 per month.

If your lights are blinking or completely out call us from 8 AM to 4:30 PM at 319-472-4707 (City Hall) or 319-472-4813 (Distribution Office). If no one answers at the Distribution Office number during office hours please hang up and call city hall. For all after business hour emergencies please call the Power Line Technicians cell phone at 319-560-9871 or generations cell at 319-560-9870.

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOUR LIGHTS GO OUT?

Have you ever wondered what transpires when you make that phone call reporting your lights going out? The answer is a lot happens after you make the call. Power line technicians try to determine if the outage is confined to your residence only, your local neighbors, a larger area around your neighborhood or if the outage affects the entire city of Vinton. If only one call is received than the assumption is that it is confined to your property. If numerous calls come in from all over Vinton then the entire city is out. If the entire city is out, 3 minutes later a generator at our generation plant automatically starts and lights up the light plant and distribution building. Generation plant employees come in, contact ITC/Alliant service center to find out if they are aware of the outage and do they know how long it will be before they can restore power. Normally they do not know the outage duration and at that time plant crews start our generation to pick up the town. Plant crews check with the line crew to make sure they are clear and then begin to pick up the circuits feeding the town. The first circuit on is always the hospital followed by the Lutheran Home circuit. Those are followed by downtown business circuits including the west well circuit for pumping water and our loop circuits that surround the town. Keep in mind that once generation is going the circuits are all on within a minute or two of each other.