Provo's utility setup has one genuinely unusual feature, and once you understand it the rest of the checklist falls into place: for most of what you need, the city is the utility company. Power, water, wastewater, stormwater and garbage all come from Provo City on one account. Only natural gas and internet are outside bodies.
That is not the arrangement in most American cities, and it changes both how you sign up and where your money goes.
Step 1: The One Call — Provo City
Dial 311 inside Provo city limits, or (801) 852-6000 from outside. In person: 311 Customer Service, Provo City Hall, 445 W Center Street, on the first floor.
You cannot do this online, and this is the single most common stumble. Provo City requires all residents to start or stop service in their own name by phone or in person, which the city says is to keep personal information protected. Paying, tracking usage and managing the account afterwards are all available online through the city's portal; it is only opening and closing service that needs a person.
Do not go to the Provo Power building. The city says so directly on its own site: utility accounts are not opened and payments are not taken at the Provo Power campus at 251 W 800 North. That is an operations base — line crews, substation technicians, a 24/7 dispatch center — not a customer counter. People drive there constantly and get sent back to City Hall.
Everything the city provides lands on one bill: electricity, water, wastewater, stormwater and garbage. All of it is billed on usage, so when you move out you get a final bill running to the disconnection date rather than a flat month.
Give yourself several business days. Not because the city is slow, but because a move-in day with no power is a bad day.
Step 2: Understand What You Just Joined
Provo Power is not a smaller version of a private utility. It is a different animal, and the differences show up on your bill and in your city.
It has been running since 1940, and by the city's own description it is the largest municipally owned electric utility in the state of Utah.
It buys power collectively. Provo is one of six member cities of the Utah Municipal Power Agency (UMPA), established in 1980, alongside Spanish Fork, Salem, Manti, Nephi and Levan. UMPA handles power supply, scheduling, transmission services and forecasting for all six. Three of those six sit in Utah County, which is why Spanish Fork and Salem also run their own municipal power rather than buying from the regional investor-owned utility — a fact that quietly explains a lot about how this valley is wired.
There are no investors, so the return goes to the city instead. This is the part worth understanding properly. A private utility sends profit to shareholders. Provo Power instead makes an annual transfer to the city's General Fund, which the city currently states as 12.5 percent, over $9 million — money that pays for city services which would otherwise be collected as taxes. It is governed by a citizen advisory Energy Board, the Municipal Council and the city administration rather than a board answering to investors.
One note on that number, because it moves. Provo Power's legacy website still describes the transfer as 10 percent and over $8 million. The city's current site says 12.5 percent and over $9 million. That is not a contradiction so much as a migration: Provo Power states it is moving its content onto provo.gov, so the provo.gov figure is the current one. If you are checking this yourself, check there.
Generation and the green target. Provo's old power plant was demolished in 2016 after more than 75 years and replaced the following year with a substantially cleaner natural gas plant — a direct response to the emissions that Utah Valley's winter inversions trap on the valley floor. The utility publishes a goal of being 60 percent green by 2030.
Numbers worth saving before you need them: power outages (801) 852-6888. Low or sparking lines (801) 852-6999 — though if lines are down and sparking, call 911 first. Street light out: report through 311.
Two things residents miss. Provo Power runs rebate and efficiency programs through a partner program site, and it gives away trees. The NatureShade tree giveaway applications open 10 September 2026 at 8 a.m., online only, 150 trees, first come first served, one per residential customer, with a waitlist for the next fifty applicants and no eligibility if you received a tree in 2024 or 2025. That is a genuinely good free thing that almost nobody in Provo knows about, and it closes the moment the counter hits 150.
If you are considering solar, the rules for a municipal utility are not the rules for the investor-owned utility that serves most of the rest of the valley — see home solar in Utah, which separates the two.
Step 3: Natural Gas — the Name Changed, Nothing Else Did
Your gas provider is Enbridge Gas Utah. Phone 1-800-323-5517, online at enbridgegas.com.
If that is not the name you were expecting, you are in good company. Utah's gas utility has now had three names in living memory: Questar Gas, then Dominion Energy Utah, and since 2024 Enbridge Gas Utah. Enbridge completed its acquisition of Questar Gas and the related Wexpro companies from Dominion Energy in June 2024; the Utah, Wyoming and Idaho utility now operates under the Enbridge name, dominionenergy.com redirects to enbridgegas.com for those states, and from April 2026 bills and customer emails come from the Enbridge domain.
What did not change: the phone number, the pipes, the crews, the rates at the moment of the handover, or how you interact with the utility.
What this means practically: any moving guide, landlord welcome packet or forwarded email older than about two years will tell you to call Dominion. It is the same company. And because a utility rebrand is exactly the moment impersonation scams spike, treat unexpected demands for immediate payment or unannounced door visits with suspicion and call the published customer number to verify.
Gas is what heats almost everything here, which is why the winter half of your bill looks nothing like the summer half. Our HVAC guide for Utah Valley covers why the valley's bills are so seasonally lopsided and what actually moves the number.
Step 4: Internet — the Only Real Choice You Get
This is the one utility where Provo is genuinely spoiled, for reasons that are a whole story on their own: the city built a municipal fiber network, sold it, and ended up with Google Fiber. That history is worth knowing before you sign a two-year contract — see iProvo to Google Fiber.
For the current comparison of providers, speeds and what is actually available at a given address, see the best internet providers in Provo. The one piece of advice that belongs here: check availability at your specific street address before you sign the lease, not after. Coverage in Provo is genuinely address-by-address, and "the building has fiber" and "your unit has fiber" are different claims.
Schedule installation early. During the August move-in crush, appointment slots go out weeks.
Step 5: Renters Insurance
Not a utility, and skipped constantly. Most Provo landlords require it and will want proof before keys change hands. Even where it is optional, it is cheap relative to what it covers, and in a city with a lot of older housing and a lot of shared student living, the liability half is as valuable as the contents half. Get quotes before signing.
The Other Half of the City Bill: Water, Sewer, Stormwater and Garbage
These arrive automatically with your city account and nobody explains them, so here is what you are actually getting.
Three cans, all roughly 95 gallons. Black for garbage, blue for recycling, green for yard waste. They are close enough in size that people put things in the wrong one constantly. If you need extra black cans the city will supply them — but any can you request has to be kept for a minimum of one year, so it is a twelve-month decision, not a one-month one.
Collection runs Monday through Thursday, and which day is yours depends on where you live — the city publishes a Sanitation Schedule Map rather than a simple grid. Recycling goes out the same day as garbage. Put cans out the night before: crews start emptying at 6:00 a.m., which is earlier than most newcomers expect. During major holiday weeks pickup typically slides a day.
Everything Provo picks up has to be inside a can, with two exceptions: Christmas trees in January and leaf bags in the fall.
The green can is seasonal and cheap. The 2026 green yard waste season runs 2 March to 27 November, with green cans emptied on your normal garbage day. As the city published it in August 2026, the green can costs $6.40 a month during the season and nothing at all from December through February, and you keep the discounted black-can rate through the winter — which makes it one of the few utility line items in Provo where opting in costs less than opting out. Watch what goes in it: rocks, concrete, sod, large stumps, plastic bags and chemically treated wood are all refused, and the city warns that garbage found in a green can may draw a fine.
Free glass recycling exists and is almost unknown. There is a glass dumpster at the old City Hall site, 50 South 300 West, with separate dividers for clear, green and brown. Rinse before you go. Glass does not go in the blue can.
Big items have a season. Provo runs spring and fall cleanups with dumpsters out for six weeks each. Both come with a coupon for a free load to the transfer station, and the fall cleanup also includes a coupon for five free leaf bags. If you are throwing out furniture or appliances, waiting for a cleanup window is free where doing it any other week is not.
Electronics and household hazardous waste do not go curbside at all. Those go to the South Utah Valley Solid Waste District transfer station. Published addresses for that facility differ between sources, so use the district's own site rather than a listing when you drive out.
The compost yard is at 1625 South Industrial Parkway in south Provo, where the city's green waste is ground and sold back as compost. It runs Fridays and Saturdays, 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., March to November, with a reduced winter operation for drop-off only.
Two of Provo's own pages disagree on compost prices, and both are live: one gives compost at $5 a yard for residents and $10 for non-residents, another gives $10 and $15. The durable version is the part both agree on — residents pay roughly half what non-residents pay, green waste drop-off is free during the city cleanups and carries a small per-load fee outside them, and larger trailer loads cost more. Call 311 for the current number rather than trusting either page, including this one.
One thing to check before you sign a lease: not every townhome or apartment building in Provo is on city solid waste collection. Some use a private hauler and a shared dumpster. That is part of why "utilities included" means such different things across buildings.
What It Actually Costs
Published averages for Provo utilities are close to useless because the seasonal swing dwarfs the differences between households. Two things are more reliable than any table:
Ask for the actual bills. A landlord or outgoing tenant can usually produce twelve months of real usage for that specific unit. An older single-pane house and a new sealed apartment on the same street can differ by more than double in January.
Budget for the shape, not the average. Gas peaks hard in December through February, because heating here is gas. Electricity peaks in July and August with cooling. Water, sewer, stormwater and garbage stay roughly flat. Internet is fixed and is the only line you can shop.
Provo publishes its own utility rates and fees, plus guidance specifically on seasonal high bills — which exists because the first winter bill is a predictable shock rather than a billing error.
If the Bill Is a Problem
The city links to both of these from its own utilities page, which is a decent signal that they are the right doors:
HEAT — Utah's low-income home energy assistance program, administered by the state. It is not only for people in crisis, and the income cutoffs are higher than most people assume.
Community Action Services — emergency assistance in Utah County, including help with utilities. Our guide to volunteering and community services in Utah Valley covers what this organization does and how its programs are structured, including the caution that its published hours vary between its own pages.
Ask early. Assistance programs are far more useful before a shutoff notice than after one.
What's Usually Included in Rent
Many Provo apartments, especially student housing, bundle some utilities.
Often included: water, sewer, stormwater, garbage, sometimes basic internet Rarely included: electricity, gas, premium internet Never included: renters insurance, phone
"Utilities included" means wildly different things from building to building. Ask which specific ones, in writing, before signing — this is a standard item on our first-time renter's checklist.
The Order To Do It In
- Confirm internet availability at the exact address — before signing, because it can change your mind about the unit
- Call 311 or visit City Hall for power, water, wastewater, stormwater and garbage — several business days before move-in
- Call Enbridge Gas Utah at 1-800-323-5517
- Book internet installation — earliest slot you can get, especially in August
- Buy renters insurance and send proof to the landlord
- Set up autopay and the usage portal once accounts exist
- Note the outage number somewhere that is not your router
Planning work on the house itself? Building permits in Provo covers what needs one. And how to follow Provo city council covers where rate and service decisions actually get made.
Related Guides
- Moving to Provo: The Ultimate Guide
- Best Internet Providers in Provo
- iProvo to Google Fiber: How Provo Got Its Network
- First-Time Renter's Checklist
- Cost of Living in Provo
- HVAC in Utah Valley
- Home Solar in Utah
- Provo Weather
- Best Apartments Near BYU
Verified August 2026 against Provo City's own pages for the 311 process, the in-person address, the no-online-signup rule, the Provo Power building notice, UMPA membership, the General Fund transfer, the 2030 green target, the outage numbers and the NatureShade giveaway terms; and against Enbridge's own customer pages and the June 2024 acquisition announcements for the gas utility rename. Rates, hours, phone numbers and program terms change — confirm with the provider before relying on any of it.
Frequently Asked Questions
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