Georgia Power Company History

Georgia Power

Power plant in late 1800's/early 1900's

Electric lights come to Georgia
Atlanta was one of the first cities in Georgia to demand electric lighting. In 1883, its citizens organized and promoted the formation of an electric company. It seems they were motivated by a spirit of pride, in that they did not want Atlanta to lag behind other towns in acquiring this great invention. The citizens raised $3,500 in a stock offering and formed the Georgia Electric Light Company of Atlanta. The company received a franchise to “serve patrons from a central station, or from isolated plants, electric lights for stores, dwellings, machine shops, depots, inside and out, or to introduce said lights wherever desired.” Later that year, the new company entered into a contract to purchase an electric light plant of 45 lights for the sum of $8,500 from the Southern Light Company of New York. In 1884, the company built a 940 kilowatt generating plant on Marietta and Spring Streets and installed 22 electric street lights. By 1889, half the generation from the plant was powering 800 streetlights; the rest was being used to operate another new invention, electric streetcars. In 1891, an Atlanta banker named Henry Atkinson began pulling together the foundation of what was to become Georgia Power Company. He became a shareholder in Georgia Electric Light Company of Atlanta, and a year later, he quietly accumulated enough stock to take control of the operation. Atkinson was the perfect person to take hold of a fledgling electric company, which he now simply called Georgia Electric Light Company. He was considered a visionary and maverick by all who knew him. One of Atkinson’s first tasks was to raise funds to completely rebuild the electric system of his new company. He was successful and soon installed 800 arc lights and 2,000 incandescent lights and constructed a steam generating plant on Davis Street to provide more power. The new plant generated 11,000 kilowatts and was built for the huge sum of $600,000. Half the plant’s output ran streetlights, the rest powered electric streetcars.

As a result of Atkinson’s improvements, the Atlanta Constitution, on June 6, 1894, wrote, “There is not a better lighted city in America than Atlanta, and there is not a citizen in Atlanta who will not gladly testify to the excellence of the City’s street lighting service. The Georgia Electric Light Company is fully deserving of commendation for its efforts to give the City a thoroughly efficient service.... Night after night, the street lights scattered over 10 square miles burn with perfect regularity. The City is to be congratulated that the lighting service is in the hands of a Company that performs its duties so faithfully.” By 1897, Georgia Electric Light Company was serving 400 customers. The company’s annual payroll for its 35 employees was $25,283. Georgia Railway and Electric Company As the industry and demand for electricity grew, it wasn’t long before Atkinson recognized the need for further consolidation. In 1902, he hired a young Atlanta lawyer, Preston S. Arkwright, to charter a company called Georgia Railway and Electric Company and consolidate many of the street car lines and their generating plants into the new firm. Georgia Railway and Electric Company acquired Atlanta Gas Light Company in 1903. By 1904, Georgia Railway and Electric Company was straining to keep up with demand. President Arkwright entered into an agreement with developer S. Morgan Smith, who founded the Atlanta Water and Electric Power Company, to purchase all the output from Smith’s hyrdoelectric plant on the Chattahoochee River. The site, just north of Atlanta was called Morgan Falls.

Georgia Power

Morgan Falls Hydro Facility

Morgan Falls was one of the largest hydro plants of its time, with a capacity to generate 17,000 kilowatts. It was enough capacity to meet all the needs of Georgia Railway and Electric Company; but as a matter of precaution, the coal plants were maintained as standby generators. Unfortunately,\ early operations of the hydro plant were sporadic, leading to many power interruptions. To reduce this problem, the company purchased and installed a 6,000 horsepower gas engine at the Davis St. plant , and connected it to a 2,000-kilowatt generator. The unit could come on and take full load within two minutes, and with the aid of storage batteries, could keep both the street railway and electric light and power service going with minimal delay. Through another consolidation, the hydro plant was acquired by Atkinson’s company in 1912. Today Morgan Falls still produces power for Georgia Power customers.

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