The United Electric Co history

In late 1913, United opened a modern power station at 201st Street on an inlet of the Harlem River named Sherman Creek.

The control room of the compact substation built by United in 1915 and located at 345 West 45th Street.

An advertisement published in United Service magazine during 1917 that promoted industrial and commercial ac motors.

By 1920 there were a total of 70 area distribution points, with each supplied over a dedicated feeder from a substation and interconnected by “manhole” switches to enable a fault to be bypassed.

United sales for April 1922 tell a remarkable story.

Electrical World projected, in 1923, that only Boston, New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia would retain dc in the downtown areas.

Articles in Electrical World lavished praise upon United, while a masterpiece article by H. Richter in the August 1925 issue of Electric Journal helped unravel the Gordian knot that was the mystery of network evolution.

As networks were installed, three phase soon predominated with 65 MW of United’s 83 MW of distribution converted by 1928, a year pivotal in the long history of the ac revolution.

To assist the changeover, United and New York Edison merged their technical departments in 1932.

On 17 August 1959, a Hell Gate feeder failure shut down Manhattan from the south side of 110th Street to 59th on the west but only to 86th Street on the east.

In 1995, employees purchased the company from the former owner and became a 100% employee-owned company.

United Electric Co-op Inc. is a member-owned nonprofit cooperative which was incorporated on June 27, 1997, as a result of the consolidation of Unity Light & Power in Burley, Idaho, and Rural Electric Company in Rupert, Idaho.