CITY CELEBRATES
POWERFUL ANNIVERSARY

About 73 years ago, you could buy three pounds of coffee for $1.35 (and get a free glass), ham was 28 cents a pound, and 18 pounds of sugar cost $1.

And, according to officials with GEUS, electricity in Greenville cost just about what is does now.

Today marks the 110th anniversary of the date when the city's first power plant went in to operation, providing continuous electricity to the residents and businesses in Greenville and becoming the first municipally-owned electric plant in Texas.

The Town Branch Plant, with just two dynamos powered by a steam engine fired by lignite coal, brought electricity to 1000 homes and 40 street lights.

Starting on March 4, 1891, the plant operated only at night unless there was a matinee performance at the King Opera House. Residents could obtain electricity during the day if they paid an extra fee to the Greenville Water and Electric Light Company.

The City of Greenville purchased the power plant in 1908, moved it to the Sabine River, installed two steam generators and began generating electricity 24 hours a day.

In June of 1928, Municipal Utilities Magazine praised the operation for netting the city a large annual profit, while local consumers enjoyed low rates for electricity.

"The maximum rate charged domestic consumers for current is only 7 cents per KWH," the article noted.

GEUS currently charges an average rate of 7.99 cents per kilowatt hour for residents, compared to the statewide average of 7.79 cents per KWH, according to reports from the U.S. Department of Energy.

In December of 1928, Municipal Utilities Magazine again recognized Greenville's electric utility, publishing a paper from then-Mayor Joseph P. Nichols in which Nichols stressed the need to keep politics and power generation separate.

In what could be considered a prediction of the current electric deregulation issue. Nichols, in the paper, which was originally presented to the Convention of the Municipal Utilities League in Dallas said, " There is no sane reason why a local public utility cannot be as successfully and wisely maintained and operated by a city as by a most efficient Private Corporation."

In 1955, in another parallel of electric deregulation, the City of Greenville refused an offer to sell the utility to Texas Power and Light, which eventually became TXU, which is one of the utilities GEUS will compete against should local residents eventually opt-in to deregulation.

GEUS, then known as the Greenville Electric Utility System, was formed as an autonomous entity in 1988 as a result of an election to amend the City Charter.

Written By Brad Kellar
March 4, 2001
Reprinted with permission from
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Greenville's Community-Owned
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Greenville, Texas 75402
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