Chillicothe Municipal Utilities

What Chillicothe Municipal Utilities does

Chillicothe Municipal Utilities (CMU) is a community-owned municipal utility and division of the City of Chillicothe, Missouri, providing electric, water, wastewater, and refuse services to residents and businesses of Chillicothe. Founded in 1911 as an electric provider, CMU has expanded over more than a century to operate four integrated utility lines with regulated, monthly billing. It serves approximately 4,700 electric customers and ~4,000 water customers (plus three rural water districts) and operates residential curbside and commercial refuse collection, including recycling in partnership with Hope Haven Industries.

The utility's core technology is conventional municipal infrastructure rather than software. It operates 115 miles of electric distribution lines, six live substations, and the Beardmore Energy Center (1611 Waterworks Road), which houses one gas turbine and five diesel generators capable of supplying the entire town in an emergency. Water is drawn from six alluvial wells (replacing the Grand River source in the early 1970s) and treated at a 4.5 MGD plant with three water towers providing 2 million gallons of storage. Wastewater is processed through a 4.6 MGD oxidation ditch facility connected to 70 miles of sewer lines, with average daily flow of 1.4 MGD. Customer-facing technology is limited to an automatic meter reading system, the Merchant Transact online bill pay portal, CodeRED text alerts, and the Hometown Grid outage reporting platform.

CMU operates as a regulated monopoly with no sales motion: customers initiate connect/disconnect requests, and bills are issued monthly across three billing cycles at rates set by the Board of Public Works, a nonpartisan body appointed by the Mayor and City Council whose stated goal is reliable service at the lowest possible cost. Revenue is generated entirely from recurring monthly utility charges (flat base rates plus variable consumption charges per kWh or gallon), with supplemental revenue from volume-based refuse bag sales (CMU orange bags), service connection deposits differentiated by customer type (homeowner, renter, commercial), and reconnection fees. The utility is not publicly traded, does not disclose revenue, and is governed and managed locally under General Manager Matt Hopper.

Name

Chillicothe Municipal Utilities

Legal name

Chillicothe Municipal Utilities

Website

https://cmuchillicothe.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1911

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Chillicothe Municipal Utilities is a community-owned municipal utility division of the City of Chillicothe, Missouri, providing regulated electric, water, wastewater, and refuse services to approximately 4,700 electric and 4,000 water customers plus three rural water districts in Chillicothe.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Municipal Utility Services

NAICS

Utilities (221), Electric Power Generation, Transmission and Distribution (2211), Water Supply and Irrigation Systems (221310)

SIC

Electric, Gas & Sanitary Services (4900), Electric Services (4911), Refuse Systems (4953)

akta.pro primary industry

Municipal Electric Utilities (Munis) (EUADABAB)

akta.pro secondary industries

Regulatory Compliance Monitoring & Reporting (SDWA/CWA/NPDES, permits, audits) (EUANAJAA), Public Works & Municipal Infrastructure (Streets, Stormwater, Facilities) (BPAIACAF)

Keywords

• Municipal utility services
• Electric power distribution
• Water treatment supply
• Wastewater collection treatment
• Residential refuse collection

Headquarters

HQ city

Chillicothe

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices4 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Infrastructure, Operations, Supply Chain, Technology or R&D

Revenue model

1. Electric Service: Monthly billing with flat base rates plus variable costs based on kWh consumed. Serves approximately 4,700 electric customers.
2. Water Service: Monthly billing with flat base rate plus variable cost based on gallons consumed. Serves almost 4,000 water customers and 3 rural water districts.
3. Wastewater Service: Monthly billing based on water meter size and water consumption. Wastewater charges are calculated based on amount of water usage.
4. Refuse Collection: Volume-based pricing using orange CMU trash bags. Residential curbside pickup with base rate plus additional charges based on bag usage.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Chillicothe Municipal Utilities is a community-owned municipal utility providing integrated electric, water, wastewater, and refuse collection services to residents and businesses in Chillicothe, Missouri. It operates as a division of the City of Chillicothe, governed by a Board of Public Works, and has supplied electric service since 1911 with water sourced from alluvial wells.

Product overview

Chillicothe Municipal Utilities is a community-owned municipal utility providing integrated electric, water, wastewater, and refuse services to residents and businesses in Chillicothe, Missouri. The utility operates as a single-platform municipal services organization with four core service divisions: Electric Service (serving approximately 4,700 customers with 115 miles of distribution lines and emergency generation capacity), Water Service (serving nearly 4,000 customers and 3 rural water districts with water from alluvial wells), Wastewater Service (oxidation ditch treatment facility processing 1.4 million gallons per day), and Refuse Collection (residential and commercial trash/recycling services). Additional services include utility billing with multiple payment options, the Hometown Grid outage reporting system for real-time outage mapping, Project Power charitable donation program, paperless billing with ACH options, CMU Text Alerts notification system, and the Lead and Copper Survey for water infrastructure compliance. The utility is governed by a Board of Public Works and operates the Beardmore Energy Center for power generation.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Electric Service Electric utility service supplying approximately 4,700 customers with power through six live substations and 115 miles of distribution lines, backed by a generation facility with one gas turbine and five diesel generators.
• Water Service Water utility service serving nearly 4,000 water customers and 3 rural water districts, drawing water from six alluvial wells with a treatment plant capable of 4.5 million gallons per day and three water towers storing up to 2 million gallons.
• Wastewater Service

Named customers2 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration2 records

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Hometown GridcoreTechnology or Integration · 23 January 2025Chillicothe Municipal Utilities partnered with Hometown Grid to provide an online outage reporting system with real-time updates and map of current power outages, water leaks, and sewer backups. Community members can text or call 888-906-5510 to report outages which are then displayed on a live map.
• BSI Online (Backflow Solutions, Inc.)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerBSI Online is North America's leading cross-connection control/backflow data management firm. They partner with over 550 water purveyors and assist CMU with state-required cross-connection/backflow tracking regulations, sending notifications and managing required data on behalf of CMU.
• Hope Haven IndustriesminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCMU has partnered with Hope Haven Industries, the local sheltered workshop, for recycling. CMU collects recycled items on customers' assigned trash day and transports them to Hope Haven for processing.
• Operation HelpminorOthersProject Power program in conjunction with Operation Help distributes funds to families in need. CMU adds tax-deductible donations to utility bills monthly which are directed to Operation Help for distribution. On average, 225 families/individuals seek assistance from Operation Help each year.

Scale indicators12 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Independence Power & Light: Municipal electric and water utility owned by the City of Independence, Missouri. Comparable as another Missouri municipal utility with multi-service delivery and a similar community-owned charter structure.
• Trenton Municipal Utilities: Small North-Central Missouri municipal utility serving the city of Trenton with comparable electric and water services. Closely comparable scale and geography (same region of Missouri as Chillicothe).
• Marshall Municipal Utilities: Small Missouri municipal utility providing electric, water, wastewater, and refuse services to Marshall, MO. Closest match in scale, service mix, and rural-Missouri municipal structure to CMU.
• City Utilities of Springfield: Community-owned municipal utility serving Springfield, Missouri with electric, water, gas, and transit/broadband services. Most directly comparable full-service municipal utility peer in the state, operating under a similar Board of Public Works governance model.
• Hannibal Board of Public Works: Board-governed municipal utility in Hannibal, Missouri providing electric, water, and other services to a small Northeast Missouri city. Highly comparable governance (Board of Public Works) and small-town service footprint.
• Macon Municipal Utilities: Small-town Missouri municipal utility providing electric, water, and sewer services. Comparable in scale, service mix, and rural-Missouri municipal ownership model.

Broad incumbents

• Liberty Utilities (Missouri): Investor-owned regulated electric and gas utility serving parts of Missouri, including rural areas near CMU's footprint. Comparable service categories but IOU ownership and broader regional scale.
• Evergy: Large investor-owned electric utility serving Missouri and Kansas, including areas adjacent to CMU. Broad incumbent peer at the regional grid level, though it does not provide municipal water/wastewater.
• Missouri American Water: Largest investor-owned water and wastewater utility in Missouri, serving communities across the state. Comparable water/wastewater service category but operates at much larger scale under IOU economics rather than municipal ownership.

Others

• Hometown Grid: Outage-mapping and customer-engagement SaaS platform specifically built for small municipal utilities like CMU. Cited as a direct technology integration partner; included as an ecosystem enabler peer rather than a competitor.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/chillicothe-municipal-utilities

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles9 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Chillicothe Municipal Utilities