The year was 1924.
Calvin Coolidge was president. The first Winter Olympics were held in Chamonix, France. The Jazz Age and flappers were in full swing. And Macy’s held its first Thanksgiving Day parade.
By the mid-1920s, more than 60 percent of American households had electricity, compared with 16 percent in 1912, according to History.com. It all started on Sept. 4, 1882, when Thomas Edison’s Edison Illuminating Company flipped the switch on a power station in lower Manhattan, providing electricity to homes at a price comparable to gas. By the end of the month, they had 59 customers. The following year, they had 513.
Pikes Peak Region
Gas and electricity trekked west to the Pikes Peak region shortly thereafter, however, the services were owned by various private companies and were less-than-reliable and expensive. Even after a major consolidation, things hadn’t improved much and in 1924, voters approved a $1.25 million bond that authorized the city to buy the company supplying light, heat and power to Colorado Springs residents.
Adding electric and gas services to the existing municipal water and sewer systems created a community-owned, four-service utility. The Pikes Peak region was home to about 40,000 people at that time, according to Census data. Since then, the population has swelled to roughly 20 times that number, making Colorado Springs Utilities the largest of its kind in the country.
“What makes us unique is that four-service aspect,” says Amy Trinidad, public relations supervisor for Colorado Springs Utilities.
Equally important, she says, is that the region's citizen-owners elect Colorado Springs’ city council, which also serves as the utilities board, which governs Colorado Springs Utilities.
Looking Back
Colorado Springs Founder General William Jackson Palmer believed the city’s future was inextricably tied to the development of utilities. The El Paso Canal was constructed in 1871. Later that decade, Colorado Springs voters approved a bond issue to build the first municipal water system, followed by the city’s first sewer system.
Prior to that, people hauled water home from nearby water sources, hoping their neighbors’ livestock hadn’t just been wading upstream, says Colorado Springs Utilities CEO Travas Deal. Suddenly, water was more accessible and safer.
“Then electricity came along,” Deal says. “It was great.”
Oil lamps began to fall out of fashion. Residents could simply hit a switch and voila! Well, sometimes...
“One hundred years ago, transmission wasn’t good,” Deal says. “You wanted reliability.”
That led to the vote in 1924 to authorize the city to take over electricity and gas. Rapid improvements occurred in electric reliability with the opening of the Martin Drake Power Plant in 1925 and the installation of the city’s first gas pipeline in 1931.
Along came electric irons, washing machines, radios, refrigerators and freezers, electric stoves, vacuum cleaners, heating systems, air conditioners and eventually, televisions.
Manufacturing increased exponentially.
“That industrial revolution never would have happened without electricity,” Deal says.
Looking to the Future
In 2021, the Drake Power Plant received its last coal train delivery. The century-old coal plant helped drive growth and reliable energy for the region, but the increasing availability of renewable energy, high maintenance costs of running an aging coal-fired plant and impact of anticipated regulation helped prompt the decision to close the plant. Demolition is tentatively scheduled to finish later this year.
Six modular natural gas generators installed next to the old structure provide power at much lower costs and with fewer emissions. Discussions are ongoing about what to do with that city-owned property longer term.
Colorado Springs Utilities is entering a period of major change.
Currently, it has about $5 billion worth of infrastructure and expects to add another $3.7 billion in assets over the next five years through capital investments. These investments are needed, Deal says, to ensure compliance with regulatory mandates, to support community growth and to maintain or improve system reliability for customers.
“We have to transform our entire footprint,” Deal says.
The vision for the future includes solar, hydro, batteries, natural gas and other mechanisms for producing reliable energy. While there will always be a need for power, how it’s delivered will continue to change – just as it has over the past century. That, he says, is why the utility has a 50-year plan, but reviews it every year and overhauls it every five.
“I think some kid who isn’t even born is going to come up with something we can’t even imagine,” Deal says.
Website: https://www.csu.org/
Facebook: @ColoradoSpringsUtilities
Instagram: @CSUtilities
“I think some kid who isn’t even born is going to come up with something we can’t even imagine.” -Travas Deal