Illinois Power history

The Chicago Edison Company, for example, initially sold only hardware, but, in 1888, it opened an electric station with a capacity to power 10,000 lights in the offices of the financial district around Adams and LaSalle Streets.

Chicago Union Stock Yards opens; by 1900 employs more than one third of packing industry laborers in the nation.

After gaining key power contracts with the transit companies, he took a risk in 1902 when he installed the world's first modern turbogenerator at the Fisk Street Station.

Illinois Traction Company was formed in 1904 by utility investor William B. McKinley to bring together several heat, light, and power companies operating principally in the central Illinois communities of Danville, Champaign, Urbana, and Decatur.

Illinois and Mississippi (Hennepin) Canal construction is begun between the Illinois and the Rock rivers; completed in 1907.

Springfield race riot leads to formation of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909.

Several electric-powered rail lines, including those operating out of Peoria, Springfield, and East St Louis also became part of the Illinois Traction during its first few years, and by 1911 major steps had been taken to interconnect these lines.

In 1913 Southern Illinois Light & Power Company (SIL&P) was formed to consolidate the utility companies serving a few small communities east of St Louis.

1915) wins the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Navy Pier in Chicago, constructed in 1916 as a shipping terminal and then used for wartime navy and marine training and as a campus of the University of Illinois, is renovated and reopens with a giant Ferris Wheel, children’s museum, stage pavilion, and retail shops.

The Chicago White Sox won their first World Series since 1917, when they beat the Houston Astros four games to none.

By 1919 SIL&P had added more than a dozen communities to its service area when it was acquired by North American Light & Power Company, which had been formed four years earlier.

Through small acquisitions and extension of power lines into rural and unincorporated areas, IP&L's utility service area grew modestly during the 1920s.

In 1923 North American Light & Power acquired Illinois Traction and then consolidated it with SIL&P, to form Illinois Power & Light Corporation (IP&L). IP&L corporate offices were established in Chicago and William B. McKinley was named chairman of the board.

In 1925 IP&L acquired control of St Louis Troy and Eastern Railroad Company and the St Louis and Illinois Belt Railway.

In 1927 IP&L sold its Venice Power Plant to neighboring Union Electric Light and Power Company and then negotiated a contract to purchase power from Union Electric in order to continue servicing southern Illinois territory.

In 1928 several utilities held by the Insull group, including IP&L, formed the joint-venture Super-Power Company of Illinois.

In 1931 IP&L sold back its Kansas and Nebraska utilities operations to North American Light & Power.

Studebaker died in 1932 and Hanley was named president, in the first of several major officer changes during the decade.

Allen Van Wyck joined the board in 1933 and became a vice-president.

1934) becomes the first female mayor of Chicago.

Company utility revenues began to rise again in 1935 as northern and central Illinois economies began recovering.

In 1936 a sizable block of IP&L's transportation business was abandoned or sold and the following year the company was recapitalized and reorganized as Illinois Iowa Power Company, with corporate headquarters established in St Louis, and general offices in Marseilles, Illinois.

1937) becomes Comptroller, the first African-American to hold a statewide elective office in Illinois.

Hanley retired as chairman in 1940, and Van Wyck replaced Mortimer as president.

In 1942 the Securities and Exchange Commission ordered Illinois Iowa Power to dispose of its investment in Iowa subsidiaries, as well as its remaining railroad and bus properties, ice service, and water supply business.

In September 1943 the company sold its Iowa operations to non-affiliated interests and two months later adopted the name Illinois Power Company (IP), with headquarters established in Decatur, Illinois.

In 1945 IP disposed of its remaining railroad assets and began construction of a new power plant, which the government approved following the war.

With its business concentrated solely on sales of natural gas and electricity, IP became a completely independent company in 1947 when North American Light & Power divested itself of its remaining interest in IP and was dissolved.

In 1948 the Kewanee Public Service Company in central Illinois was purchased.

By 1950 it was apparent that IP's two new power plants would not be enough to keep up with growing post-war demands and plans were made for the construction of two new plants.

In 1953 IP's third post-war power plant, the Hennepin Station, began operating in north-central Illinois.

With the luxury of increased generating capacity, IP began to abandon its older generating plants in 1957, and during the next three years facilities in Champaign, Urbana, Decatur, and Danville ceased operations.

In April 1960, the Dresden Station began generating electricity, inaugurating a building program that would eventually make Chicago the metropolitan area most dependent on this form of energy in the United States.

In 1964 IP joined with 11 other utilities from 10 states in the Midwest and East to form the power pool Mid-American Interpool Network (MAIN) to establish plans for a nationally interconnected electric distribution system and to provide economical backup generating capacity.

Van Wyck was named chairman in 1966, filling a position that had been vacant since he assumed the presidency 26 years earlier.

After being selected as a federal government test site in 1970, the Wood River Station became the first commercial power plant to test a method of removing and turning stack emissions into marketable sulfuric acid.

In 1971 Van Wyck retired as chairman.

With the onset of the 1973 oil crisis, IP formed the subsidiary IP Gas Supply Company, to invest in leases which could stimulate natural gas production.

IP's only major territorial expansion of the decade came in 1974, when it purchased the electric distribution system serving the southern Illinois city of Jacksonville.

Wood River Station began burning only low-sulfur coal in 1976 and two years later a sixth unit at Havana Station went on line burning only low-sulfur coal.

After seven years in planning and permit stages, IP began construction of its first nuclear power plant in Clinton, Illinois, in 1977.

In 1983, after construction of unit two at the Clinton Station had been idled for six years, the second unit was canceled.

In 1987 the Clinton Station was granted a full-power operating license by the NRC. Economic development activities to lure potential industries into the IP electric service area were expanded to include international prospects.

As a result, in 1989 the company began cutting its workforce by 500 through a program of early retirements, layoffs, and attrition, and closed or consolidated 13 service centers.

The company also established a natural gas division to develop new and expand existing gas markets and in 1991 a natural gas vehicle demonstration program was started, using 35 fleet vehicles with fuel systems converted to use compressed natural gas.

In 1995 shareholders of both CIPSCO Inc. and of its neighboring utility of twice its size, the S&P 500-listed Union Electric Company, approved the merger of the two companies, which were to then be combined as Ameren Corporation.

By 1996, it had grown to over US$150 million in assets, and carried US$330 million in long-term debt.

1997: Electricity Deregulation Begins in Illinois

Illinois’ residential customers finally gained the power to choose their electric provider on May 1, 2002, when the state’s electric market was opened to roughly 4.4 million customers.

In December 2004, Ameren announced that Patrick T. Stokes, the president and chief executive officer of Anheuser-Busch Cos., Inc., was elected to the Ameren board of directors.

By October 2005, it was estimated that 22,000 commercial received their electricity from ARES.

In the summer of 2007, the state’s General Assembly passed the Illinois Power Agency Act, which created the Illinois Power Agency and provided over $1 billion in new electricity rate relief over four years to residential and certain commercial customers.

Finally, by 2008, residential and small business consumers began the switch to ARES companies.

By November 2009, although only 234 residential customers had switched to an ARES, the number of small business, commercial and large industrial customers that had switched climbed to approximately 71,000.

The power AmerenUE is purchasing will tie into the Midwest Independent System Operator (MISO) transmission grid, of which the company is a member, fulfilling AmerenUE’s commitment to add 100 megawatts of renewable capacity to serve its Missouri customers by 2010.”