inc. headquarters in the northbank area of downtown jacksonville type public benefit industry public utility predecessor city of jacksonville electric department electricity prior to 1968 department of public utilities water and sewer prior to 1997 founded 1968 headquarters jacksonville florida usa key people paul mcelroy ceo & managing director james m. chansler coo 1 products electric utility drinking water sewage treatment chilled water reclaimed water total assets 7.5 billion 2010 total equity 1.5 billion 2010 number of employees 2 000 approximate 2010 slogan building community website www.jea.com jea jacksonville electric authority located in jacksonville florida is the eighth largest community owned electric utility company in the united states and largest in florida . as of 2009 jea serves more than 417 000 electric customers 305 000 water customers and 230 000 sewer customers . besides jacksonville duval county jea also has customers in clay nassau and st. johns counties . contents 1 history 2 services 3 see also 4 references 5 external links history edit jacksonville s water and sewer systems had been operated by the city since 1880 and an electric system since 1895 . the electric system grew with the city but remained a department of city government until an independent authority was created by the consolidation of city and county governments in 1968 . according to article 21 of the jacksonville city charter jea is authorized to own manage and operate a utilities system within and outside the city of jacksonville . jea is created for the express purpose of acquiring constructing operating financing and otherwise have plenary authority with respect to electric water sewer natural gas and such other utility systems as may be under its control now or in the future . 2 during the 1970s jea s electric rates were among the highest in the nation . there were reports of customers with electric bills higher than their mortgage payments . citation needed royce lyles became jea managing director on september 1 1979 and the utility began diversifying its fuel mix . rates began to drop eventually becoming the lowest in the state and near the bottom in the southeast . citation needed walt bussells was appointed managing director on september 8 1995 following royce lyles retirement . on june 1 1997 jacksonville s department of public utilities water and sewer operations merged into the jacksonville electric authority . bussells embraced new technology and in 2002 jea introduced online bill payment and implemented network meter reading . in 2003 the utility also began providing chilled water for air conditioning in downtown buildings . the first two customers were the downtown library and the john milton bryan simpson united states courthouse . when the new duval county courthouse opens in 2012 it will use chilled water . purchasing chilled water eliminates the need for chillers and cooling towers at each property reducing capital outlays and eliminating ongoing maintenance costs . the space saved can also become rentable increasing revenue . 3 under bussells jacksonville s electric rates had remained artificially low throughout the 1990s and into the 2000s despite large expenditures following the water sewer acquisition in 1997 technology improvements and construction of chilled water equipment . these projects were financed with borrowed money . jim dickenson replaced walt bussells when bussells retired on june 15 2004 after nine years as ceo . 4 soon after taking over dickenson implemented the first of three temporary fuel rate increases to offset rising fuel costs . on september 7 2012 jea board of directors named paul mcelroy to fill the role of jea chief executive officer and managing director effective october 1 2012 . 5 the utility s debt was 6.0 billion against assets of 7.5 billion . compared to other similar sized municipal utilities jea had 60 % more debt per customer which could lower the utility s bond rating and make it more expensive and difficult to borrow money . 6 in 2007 jea had the second lowest electric rates in florida before they announced a four year base rate increase package that would raise the average bill from 112 to more than 140 in 2010 . 7 the additional revenue was designed to reduce debt . in early 2012 dickenson announced that he would retire february 1 2013 . 8 services edit electricity owns operates three generating plants and all transmission and distribution facilities ; co owns two additional power plants with florida power & light the st. johns river power park in northeastern jacksonville ; and unit 4 of plant scherer near macon georgia . jea also operates a methane fueled generating facility at the girvin road landfill . water 134 artesian wells tapping the floridan aquifer are distributed through 35 water treatment plants and 4 208 miles 6 772 km of water lines . sewer 3 760 miles 6 050 km of collection lines and seven regional and eight non regional sewage treatment plants . chilled water the company owns one chiller plant in downtown jacksonville which provides the commodity to nearby facilities to heat and cool their buildings air and equipment . see also edit jea northside generating station plant scherer owned in part by jea list of power stations in florida references edit hoovers.com company factsheet jea article 21 . jea municode website jacksonville city charter jacksonville business journal july 11 2003 jea s cool idea can save by chuck day hunt david there s more behind a man than ceo jea s jim dickenson florida times union april 29 2010 jea board of directors names mcelroy new ceo jea.com fitch rates jea st. johns river power park florida times union article palka mary kelli jea chief executive jim dickenson says he will retire next year florida times union january 17 2012 external links edit official website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title jea & oldid 722780257 categories government of jacksonville floridacompanies based in jacksonville floridamunicipal electric utilities of the united stateswater companies of the united statessewage treatment plants in the united statesspecial districts of floridajacksonville modern architecturehidden categories all articles with unsourced statementsarticles with unsourced statements from may 2012articles with unsourced statements from september 2014 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 30 may 2016 at 02 55 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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