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Public Policy and Price Per KWH
Reynolds, Stephen P., and Jane F. Christophersen
26/2  (Winter 1984): 83-99

Perhaps no industry better represents a microcosm of industrial society than the utility industry. In many ways, PG and E's corporate history paralleled the growth of the utility industry. The very early days of PG and E history were characterized by rapid, innovative technological development and fierce competition in supplying gas, electricity and water service. In fact, PG and E's present hydroelectric system is a direct descendent of water works built in the 1850s by gold miners. PG and E's corporate predecessors opened the world's first central station electric generating plant, built one of the world's first long distance high voltage transmission lines, and pioneered the development of geothermal electricity generation. In the early 1850s, a company which later became part of the PG and E system opened a business of 84 street lamps with just over three miles of gas lines. The charge for 1,000 cubic feet of gas was $15, roughly three times more than today's rates to customers. In direct competition with gas lights, the first electric street light was erected in 1883, at a rate of $4.95 per lamp per night. Starting in the 1930s, the technology of power production was improved and service reliability increased dramatically. By the 1950s, utilities across the U.S. were thriving. The industry as a whole was able to offset the effects of inflation through continued technological advance and increasing economies of scale.

 

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