Hydroelectricity: The Early Years

Hydroelectricity: The Early Years. . , Minneapolis boasted the nation's first central hydroelectric station., The mast carrying the arc lights towers above downtown on the company's letterhead., As sawmills adopted steam power by the 1880s and moved upriver, the infant hydroelectric industry competed with flourmills for the abandoned waterpower rights. The Minnesota Brush Electric Company secured a place near the west-bank sawmill platform for a power station., On September 5, 1882, the station supplied electricity to businesses along Washington Avenue, its first customers. A few months later, the company illuminated blocks of downtown with eight arc lights mounded on a 285'-tall mast, amazing local residents. Hundreds of smaller-scale streetlights soon followed. But the tiny plant, unreliable and unable to meet the growing demand, was shut down in 1884 and replaced by a steam-powered generating plant near Fourth Avenue North and the Mississippi., Minneapolis's 225 arc streetlights received international attention in about 1890 when this book was published in France., "City in Dark while Electric Power Plant Burns" , , Minneapolis Journal, January 6, 1911, Before you is the Main Street Station. The first one, built in 1894 by the Minneapolis General Electric Company, used both water and steam to generate high-voltage electricity. Some of the equipment in the 1894 plant came from the 1884 plant on Fourth Avenue North, which it replaced. For over a decade, the Main Street Station produced virtually all the electricity for Minneapolis. It was also a substation, transforming the high voltage power into a lower voltage for consumer use., The 1870s sawmill dam was the foundation for the first Main Street Station, seen here in about 1900., Explosions before dawn on January 6, 1911, caused a fire that destroyed the plant. Streetlights, telephone lines, houses, and factories were without power. "That part of the city which went to work at all went to work by candlelight," a newspaper reported. Electric company workers risked their lives rerouting lines to bypass the Main Street Station. The streetcar company pitched in excess electricity from its plants. In less than six hours, power was restored to downtown Minneapolis. After only a few days, most customers had electricity again., Almost the entire generator floor collapsed into the basement when the plant burned in 1911., Although tragic, the fire ultimately benefited the city. Within a year, the power company built and expanded substations and set up duplicate distribution lines so that the loss of a single facility would not black out the entire city. The Main Street Station was rebuilt, and the new Riverside steam plant several miles upriver was generating electricity by August., The rebuilt station, seen here in 1926, generated electricity until 1968. It continues to serve as an important substation for Xcel Energy, its current operator.