The Sikeston Board of Municipal utilities is the City owned utility and was established in 1931. It operates the electric,water, and sanitary sewer systems within the City and presently serves over 9,000 electric customers, 8,500 water customers and 7500 sanitary sewer customers. Sikeston BMU is governed by a four person Board that is appointed by the Sikeston City Council. The current Board consists of Jon Gilmore-Chairman, Tim Merideth-Vice Chairman, Steven Burch-Secretary, and Brian Menz-Assistant Secretary.
Sikeston's electric supply comes from the City-owned and operated Sikeston Power Station, a 235 megawatt coal-fired electric generating station located on the western edge of the city. Groundbreaking for the Power Plant took place in March of 1978 and the unit was placed in commercial operation in September of 1981. The output of the Plant not only provides for the needs of SIkeston but furnishes dependable power to a number of cities and other entities in the State. Coal for the Sikeston Power Station is furnished by Western Fuels Association, a non-profit corporation formed by municipal and cooperative-owned electric utilities for the purpose of acquiring and developing fuel resources for its members. The Sikeston Power Station annually burns over one million tons of low sulfur coal that is mined in the Powder River Basin in Wyoming.
Sikeston BMU operates three water treatment plants with a total daily capacity of over seven million gallons. The water supplying these plants is drawn from eight deep wells. Sikeston's average water consumption is 3.5 million gallons per day, with a peak daily usage of over six million gallons. Its water distribution system consists of 130 miles of water mains and 3.8 million gallons of water storage capacity.
The sanitary sewer system includes one orbal oxidation ditch and two contact stabilization treatment plants that provide a total design capacity of 4.4 million gallons per day. The sanitary sewer distribution system utilizes fourteen lift stations and lagoon facility that serves the Sikeston Business, Education and Technology Park.
Sikeston BMU also operates a thirty-three mile fiber optic communications backbone throughout the community. This fiber backbone, gives the Utility the ability to connect, monitor and communicate with all the facilities of the electric, water and sanitary sewer systems. The fiber system also allows the Utility to link all Utility and City facilities and the public school system on a high speed wide area communications network. Many of the Utilities industrial customers also have access to this network.
In the late 1990's the Board of Municipal utilities and the City of Sikeston in a joint effort created the Sikeston Business, Education and Technology Park. Several industries including Orgill's Mid-American Distribution Center, MODOT, and a satellite facility of Southeast Missouri State University are located in the Park.
According to data published by the Energy Information Administration of the United Stated Department of Energy, of the more than one hundred thirty cooperative, investor-owned, and municipal utilities serving retail customers in Missouri, BMU's overall average electric rates are among the lowest in the state.
Sikeston BMU's workforce consists of 142 employees dedicated to the Utilities goal of providing the best service at the lowest possible cost. This dedication was never more evident than during and after the devastating ice storm in January 2009 when BMU's employees spent many sixteen and eighteen hour days in adverse condition restoring service to BMU's electric customers.