History of Public Power

Public power electric systems first appeared in the United States more than 100 years ago when communities created electric utilities to provide light and power to their citizens. The first use of electricity in many communities was to provide street lighting at night. Although electricity in homes and businesses was first seen as a luxury, it soon came to be widely accepted as a public service to be enjoyed by all.

Throughout the end of the 1800s and the first decades of the 1900s, the number of utilities, both public and investor-owned, grew rapidly. By the 1920s, the public and private sectors of the industry each had more than 3,000 utilities. Now there are about 212 investor-owned utilities that serve 68 percent of all customers and nearly 900 rural electric cooperatives that serve about 12 percent of electricity customers. The 2000 public power systems serve about 14 percent of all customers.

Today, through regional organizations formed by individual utilities, public power systems jointly pool resources to build or finance generation and transmission systems and share other services. By bringing together the purchasing power of several utilities, joint action agencies achieve efficient use of resources. There are about 65 public power joint action agencies in the United States.

The electric utility industry experienced major change in the 1990s. The way in which electric service is regulated by state and federal governments has been reorganized with the intention of making it more competitive. No matter how the industry continues to change, public power will continue to provide excellent service at low rates.

 

— Taken from "Getting to Know Public Power" published by the National Energy Foundation (1996).