Here is a brief timeline of events that have shaped the growth of electricity distribution from its origins in the late 1800s to the present:
| Date |
Event |
|
| 1870s |
- Thomas Edison develops and builds the first electricity generating plant in New York City.
|
| 1880s |
- Electricity is originally transmitted and distributed in direct current (DC).
- Electric companies begin competing to supply power in major cities throughout North America. Initially, the focus is on business customers, although electric lighting is installed in some homes.
|
| 1880 |
- The first electric lights are strung along a 10-block section of Philadelphia.
|
| 1882 |
- Electric street lighting is installed in Toronto. A year later electric street lighting comes to Montreal.
|
| 1885 |
- Ottawa becomes the world’s first city to install electric lighting on all its streets.
|
| 1890s |
- Croatian physicist Nikola Tesla invents the alternating current generator, introducing alternating current (AC). This invention, along with the development of transformers, allows electricity to be transmitted at higher voltages over longer distances, changing the future of electricity transmission and distribution. Power transformers can now be used to raise voltage levels for long-distance transmission and to lower voltage to suitable levels for local distribution systems.
- AC is increasingly adopted as the standard for electric power distribution in Canada and the United States.
- Separate companies provide electricity for different needs, such as street lighting, industrial power, residential lighting and street car service — often in direct competition with each other, and often using different equipment, voltages and frequencies. This situation creates inefficiency and redundancy in local electricity services.
|
| 1898 |
- In the United States, American financier Samuel Insull proposes that electric companies be regulated by state agencies which establish rates and set service standards. This leads to the emergence of regulatory agencies in the early 1900s.
|
| 1908 |
- The Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario, one of the world’s first electrically integrated public electric utilities, signs contracts to purchase power at Niagara Falls and transmit it over its transmission lines, yet to be constructed, to municipal electric distribution companies in Toronto and southwestern Ontario.
|
| 1910 |
- The Hydro-Electric Power Commission’s first 100 kilovolt transmission lines supply power to municipalities in southwestern Ontario, opening the way for the electrification of the province’s municipalities.
|
| 1920s |
- In major cities across North America, electric companies compete for customers, each with its own sets of poles and wires. In order to bring service to more people and more consistency to electricity services, governments adopt laws providing for a single electric company in each city. Under these rules, utilities are given a monopoly within a “service territory.” In return, electric companies agree to provide service to any customer who wants it.
- Electrification of rural areas begins in different areas of Canada.
|
| 1990s |
- Restructuring of the electricity industry in Ontario and Alberta begins.
|
| 1995 |
- The Alberta government passes the Electric Utilities Act. The new legislation is designed to restructure the generation of electricity and the selling of electricity to customers. The Act provides consumers, starting in 2001, with the option of choosing which retailer they want to provide them with power.
|
| 1998 |
- A major ice storm hits Ontario, Quebec, Atlantic Canada and parts of the United States, destroying high voltage towers and damaging distribution systems. Close to 1.4 million people in Quebec and 150,000 in Ontario are left without electricity — in some places, up to several weeks. Weather experts call it the most destructive storm in Canadian history.
- Ontario’s Energy Competition Act authorizes the restructuring of Ontario Hydro into several successor commercial companies and provides retail access by marketers to different distribution systems.
|
| 2003 |
- Power goes out on August 14, 2003, across portions of Ontario and the U.S. Midwest and Northeast, affecting 50 million people in the U.S. and Canada. Parts of Ontario suffer rolling blackouts for more than a week. Observers call it the biggest electricity blackout in North American history. The event puts pressure on governments and electricity companies to improve power reliability, develop back-up generation sources and encourage more energy conservation by consumers.
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