History

History of TMPA

The City of Greenville has produced electric power continuously for more than 100 years. The first power plant went into operation on March 4, 1891. The tiny Town Branch plant, with just two dynamos powered by a steam engine, produced electricity for the first municipally-owned electric utility in Texas.

The plant powered 1000 homes and 40 street lights. It operated only at night unless there was a matinee performance at the King Opera House or someone with enough resources to pay the daytime fee planned an extravagant afternoon party with drapes drawn and lights on! The city charged a fee to fire up the plant during the day until 1909.

To overcome the isolation of having generation and distribution facilities entirely within Greenville, the City Council pursued a tie line to Garland. The line ensured power for the city in the event of local outages. In 1960, the cities of Garland, Denton, and Bryan joined Greenville in a study to determine the feasibility and possible cost savings of a pooled operation that would allow a reduction in installed capacity for each city. The Texas Municipal Power Pool, created in 1963, was the result.

Changes in Texas Law allowed for the establishment of Texas Municipal Power Agency, TMPA, in 1975. TMPA could perform all the duties of a utility system except selling power to customers other than its members. The member cities agreed to fund TMPA in return for rights to future power generated by the Agency. TMPA built the Gibbons Creek steam generating plant, which went on line in 1983, and purchased 6.2% ownership in the nuclear power plant at Comanche Peak. The Gibbons Creek plant later converted to burn low sulfur coal from the Powder River Basin in Colorado. Comanche Peak ownership was later terminated.

The Greenville Electric Utility System became a separate entity from the City of Greenville in 1988, when voters approved the utility's autonomy. GEUS currently provides a PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) to the City, supports the City of Greenville Economic Development Board with 1% of adjusted gross revenues, and transfers an additional 3% of adjusted gross revenues to the City annually.

The Utility's Board of Trustees and General Manger have lowered residential rates, making them competitive with other utilities in the state, through extrication from the Comanche Peak agreement, sales of excess generating capacity to Weatherford and College Station, and renegotiation of natural gas contracts.

GEUS continues to improve its reliability and service while planning future changes as a result of deregulation. Greenville played a major role, in conjunction with the Texas Public Power Association, in protecting our local citizens' right to retain local control of the electric system through action of the Electric Utility Board. Our entry into cable TV and high speed Internet enhances the services we provide for our consumer-owners in Greenville.

In 1999, Greenville, Texas' economic development leaders were unable to attract certain businesses and on the verge of losing existing companies due to a lack of high speed Internet.

In response, Mayor Sue Ann Harting asked SBC for a commitment to deploy DSL. That request was denied. The city's cable franchise, Time Warner, also declined to commit to cable modem Internet deployment.

Greenville found itself in a situation similar to one that many towns had faced years ago when railroads changed transportation. If the railroad was not routed through a town, that town just might die. What would happen to Greenville if the information superhighway did not come through the city?

Greenville citizens were not willing to take that chance. They took destiny into their own hands by amending the city charter to allow their revenue-only supported, municipally-owned electric system to build a hybrid fiber coaxial system to make high speed Internet available to everyone. Digital cable TV was offered as an option on that same system.

Once the citizens had committed to this venture, the city's incumbent telephone and cable franchises found ways of deploying that high speed Internet that they had only recently declared not feasible in Greenville.

In 2001, citizens began connecting to the city's state-of-the-art system that accessed all 10,000 of the homes and business in Greenville. Public acceptance has been very good, with more than 4,500 of those homes and businesses (as of June 2005) now choosing the new municipal services after less than four years in business. Financially, this non-tax supported venture was seeing black ink earlier than expected.

Public acceptance readily came from slightly lower cost to the consumer plus faster Internet speeds and more cable TV channels than the incumbents offered. (The existing cable company wasn't even offering ESPN 2 in 2000). Consumers also welcomed the chance to have these multiple services placed on one bill with "one-stop" local customer service to handle all of the municipal services - one inclusive bill for water, sewer, garbage, electric and cable TV and Internet as options.

That information superhighway got built through Greenville and prospective businesses still ask if high speed Internet is available. Greenville's economic development gurus can now proudly answer, "Yes, and at download speeds of 6 megabytes/second".

We kind of think that President Roosevelt stated our position best when he said:

“Where a community...is not satisfied with the service rendered or the rates charged by the private utility, it has the undeniable right as one of the functions of government to set up...its own
governmentally owned and operated service.” - Franklin D. Roosevelt

Timeline

• 1888
  City water & electric franchise awarded to Greenville Water and Electric Light Company, which erected a building on the Sabine River, but never installed generators
  
  
• 1890
  City contracted with Wayne Electric Company to build municipal power plant on Town Branch
  
  
• 1891
  Power plant began generating electricity for night time use with a steam engine & two dynamos
  
  
• 1908
  City purchased Greenville Water and Electric Light Company
  
  
• 1909
  City power plant moved to Sabine River site, two steam generators installed, plant began generating power 24 hours a day
  
  
• 1928
  City of Greenville's electric utility praised in Municipal Utilities Magazine
  
  
• 1933
  Power plant expanded with installation of two diesel generators
  
  
• 1938
  Additional diesel generator installed
  
  
• 1942
  First dual-fired unit installed to take advantage of low natural gas prices
  
  
• 1947
  Capacity increased with additional dual-fired unit
  
  
• 1950
  Greenville Evening Banner Centennial Edition published history of the electric utility
  
  
• 1952
  Capacity increased with additional dual-fired unit
  
  
• 1953
  Capacity increased with additional dual-fired unit
  
  
• 1955
  City of Greenville refused purchase offer from Texas Power & Light
  
  
• 1958
  Capacity increased with additional dual-fired unit
  
  
• 1960
  Greenville interconnected with Brazos Electric Coop cities of Garland, Denton & Bryan
  
  
• 1963
  Creation of TMPP, Texas Municipal Power Pool, with Greenville, Garland, & Denton as members
  
  
• 1966
  First steam generator installed
  
  
• 1967
  Second steam generator installed
  
  
• 1969
  Bryan joined TMPP
  
  
• 1975
  TMPA, Texas Municipal Power Agency, created
  TMPA Gibbons Creek Steam Electric Station project approved
  
  
• 1977
  Third steam generator installed
  
  
• 1983
  Gibbons Creek power plant began operation
  
  
• 1987
  City electric utility began power sales to Weatherford
  
  
• 1988
  Greenville Electric Utility System approved by voters
  Utility General Manager hired
  
  
• 1989
  Greenville Electric Utility System became fully autonomous
  Lowered Residential Rates by 19%
  
  
• 1991
  100th anniversary of electric utility
  
  
• 1992
  Consumer Service Center opened
  
  
• 1993
  Rates restructured
  Sabine River diesel plant overhauled
  
  
• 1995
  GEUS achieved 6.14¢ per kilowatt hour average cost of electricity
  Fiber optic network installed for Utility, City, GISD & County communications
  Public Utility Regulatory Act amended to open Texas electric utilities to wholesale competition
  
  
• 1996
  Gibbons Creek generating plant converted to burn low sulfur coal
  Greenville Electric Utility System began PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) payments to City
  Fiber optic network expanded
  
  
• 1997
  Diesel plant retired
  Electric Utility Board issues revenue bonds on behalf of the citizens of Greenville, marking  the first time in Texas history a non-city council governmental agency has done this
  Bond issuance with cash defeasance lowers system debt by $5 million
  
  
• 1999
  1000 kW diesel unit installed for "black start" capability in event of system-wide failure
  Electric utility retail competition passed into Texas law
  
  
• 2000
  Voters approved Greenville Electric Utility System as first municipal cable TV/high speed Internet service in Texas
  Diesel plant demolished
  Greenville Electric Utility System renamed GEUS
  
  
• 2001
  110th anniversary of the date when the city's first power plant began operation  Greenville Herald Banner Article  
  
  
• 2002
  High Speed Internet and Cable TV service available citywide providing 185 TV channels, 37 audio channels, TV-accessed Internet service, and interactive guide
  Adult pay-per-view programming removed from Cable TV in response to citizen group
  
  
• 2003
  Completion of 15th year since Board was formed
     - electric rates down by 20%
     - local debt reduced by $13 million
     - system improvements: $26 million
     - transfers to the City of Greenville: $37.9 million
  Installation of a $10 million state-of-the-art hybrid fiber-coaxial cable TV and Internet  system
  
  
• 2004
  GEUS high speed Internet and cable TV subscriber count grows to more than 4,000 homes & business and operational revenues begin to exceed expenses
  Residential electric base rate reduced 1.8%
  
  
• 2006
  GEUS General Manager Tom Darte retired. He was succeeded by David McCalla, Assistant General Manager under Darte.
  
  
  

Greenville's Community-Owned
Electric, Cable TV & High Speed Internet Provider

6000 Joe Ramsey Blvd.
Greenville, Texas 75402
(903) 457-2800
Fax (903) 457-2893