Usar history

Their parent company formed other subsidiaries to meet these needs, such as Texas Utilities Fuel Company, established in 1970 to provide natural gas to the utilities.

Gas production began in 1977, and four drilling rigs were operating in 1980. It acquired oil and gas rights on 75,000 acres in western and central Pennsylvania and began exploratory drilling in 1974.

By 1975 Texas Utilities was meeting 25 percent of its fuel needs with lignite, and was continuing to acquire lignite reserves.

In 1977, additional propane distribution and storage facilities in New York, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina brought sales up to approximately 78 million gallons of propane.

Texas Utilities won praise for its foresight in turning to this fuel; its chairman and chief executive officer, T. L. Austin Jr., was named top utility executive for 1978 by Financial World.

Even environmentalists liked Austin and his company: Howard Saxton, chairman of the Lone Star Sierra Club, told Financial World in June 1979 that Austin represented "the good side of an industry that has been under continuous attack."

Its Comanche Peak nuclear plant, about 35 miles southwest of Fort Worth, was originally scheduled to begin operation in 1980.

Later, in 1981, Jacobson assumed the CEO position.

On the positive side, by 1983 Texas Utilities was using natural gas for only 45 percent of its fuel needs, with lignite supplying almost all of the remainder.

By 1984, the company had received Standard & Poor's and Moody's highest credit ratings as well as Standard & Poor's highest common stock ranking.

In 1985 its estimated total cost was revised to $5.46 billion.

In an acquisition closely related to the cellular field, Citizens acquired AAlert Paging Company in 1986, a company providing mobile pager services in several western cities, including Sacramento, San Francisco, San Diego, Tucson, Phoenix, and Salt Lake City.

Because of studies and inspections mandated by the NRC and the Atomic Safety Licensing Board, Comanche Peak's first unit was expected to go into operation in mid-1987 and the second about six months later.

In 1988 Ellis agreed to end her opposition to the licensing of Comanche Peak, and the utility made her a member of the plant's independent safety review committee.

The company was founded on April 1, 1989 and is headquartered in Warrington, the United Kingdom.“

In 1990 Citizens initiated stock dividends on its Series B, because by paying stock dividends on both its Series A and Series B stock, those stock dividends could remain tax deferred, taxed only when sold.

In order to affect higher rates of growth and take advantage of more favorable economies of scale, in 1991 Citizens merged its Citizens Cellular subsidiary into Century Cellular, a subsidiary of Century Communications Corp.

As of 1992, three quarters of the outstanding common stock was in Series A and the remainder in Series B.

Citizens, however, sold its paging business in 1993 because it had not met its growth expectations.

During fiscal 1994, 48 percent of UGI's revenue and 57 percent of its operating income came from propane.

In 1995, they merged forming United Utilities but retained their separate identities.

In 1998 TU offered to buy a large British utility company, the Energy Group PLC, for $6.9 billion.

In December 2007, United Utilities sold its electricity distribution network assets to North West Electricity Networks (Jersey) Limitied, a joint venture between funds run by Colonial First State (part of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia) and US investment bankJPMorgan Chase.

United Utilities continued to operate and maintain the network on behalf of Electricity Northwest until 2010, when Electricity Northwest bought the electricity network operations and maintenance arm of United Utilities to establish one Group which owns, operates, manages and maintains the network.

In 2011, United Utilities was selected as the preferred bidder by Severn Trent Water to purchase the Lake Vyrnwy estate for £11 million.