A corporate mascot and spokesthing. Reddy has a body made of stick-like lightning bolts. His nose is a lightbulb, his ears are wall outlets, and two small lightning bolts rise from the top of his head. He was created in 1926 by Ashton B. Collins, Sr., who was the general commercial manager for Alabama Power Company.
Reddy was offered to power companies across the United States -- the character was never meant to serve as the mascot of a single power company, but to represent electrical power to Americans as a useful, friendly, and safe utility. Over 200 companies jumped at the chance to have their own mascot, and Reddy was featured in advertisements, billboards, giveaways, coloring books, comic books, and educational cartoons all over the country. He's also very well-known around the world. He was so popular in Cuba that when Fidel Castro nationalized the Cuban electric company, he ordered a funeral march through Havana and buried the character in a cemetery.
In the late 1990s, Reddy was acquired by the Northern States Power Company, which started a subsidiary called the Reddy Kilowatt Corporation, which manages the "career" of Reddy and his brother, Reddy Flame, a mascot created for the natural gas industry. As of 2023, the character is owned by Xcel Energy, though they don't seem to be using him very much.
Weirdest research note: I found a Reddy Kilowatt Credit Union in St. John's, Newfoundland, which serves the employees of Newfoundland Power. Nothing on their website seems to mention the cartoon mascot.
Research: http://www.toonopedia.com/reddy_k.htm and http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/1998/Oct-18-Sun-1998/business/8404730.html