Bay City, Michigan 48706
Front Page 03/28/2024 08:21 About us
www.mybaycity.com March 23, 2014
(Prior Story)   Columns ArTicle 8906   (Next Story)

BRIGHT LIGHTS: City Electric Light and Power Company Shines Through

March 23, 2014       1 Comments
By: Dave Rogers

Printer Friendly Story View

The heritage of Bay City is lit brightly with the 135 year old history of the Bay City Electric Light and Power.
 

Did you know?

  • Bay City from 1883 to 1896 had a 210 foot tower, made of gas pipe, at the corner of Center and Jefferson, used not only for electric transmission but also sporting a 24,000 candle power light as a beacon for ships as far as 20 miles out into Saginaw Bay?

  • The city bought power from the North American Chemical Company for much of the third decade of the 20th century, piling up a $500,000 surplus by reselling the power at a profit.

  • The city utility is one of 14 members of the Michigan Public Power Agency (MPPA) that pool generating resources to lower costs.

    The heritage of Bay City is lit brightly with the 135 year old history of the Bay City Electric Light and Power.

    "Our utility began in 1868, three years after the end of the Civil War, as the Bay City Gas Light Company," states the city history. "All the street oil lamps were replaced with gas lamps at this time."

    Bay City was the first city in Michigan to adopt electricity for general street lighting purposes and the second city in the nation to have electric street cars. In 1923, all street cars were replaced with buses.

    The 220 foot high tower downtown blew down in a windstorm May 24, 1896 and was not replaced. The Bay City Tribune reported: "The high electric tower, which has stood at the corner of Center avenue and Jefferson street, since 1883, now lies in a shapeless mass on the city park. It fell about 6 o'clock last evening during the heavy down pouring of rain. The report was heard several blocks and shortly afterwards hundreds of people rushed to the scene to view the ruins.

    "There was no one injured by the falling structure, although Michael Burkhardt, flagman at the Flint and Pere Marquette crossing had a miraculous escape. The flagman has a small house located on the corner of the park and only a few feet from the tower. He was in the building lighting a lamp when the crash came. Gazing out a small window he witnessed the iron structure descend to the ground, portions landing within a few inches of his office."

    The history of the municipal utility is still unfolding in connection with the North American Chemical Company. That firm, located on the river south of 41st Street, was owned by the United Alkali Company of England. The massive generators of the plant furnished excess power to the city 1919-1927.

    Today the utility serves over 20,000 customers in a service area which includes Bay City and the surrounding townships of Bangor, Frankenlust, Hampton, Monitor, and Portsmouth. The utility is one of 2,000 community owned electric utilities that serves more than 42 million Americans.

    In 1886, Bay City built its own electric plant and by 1905, started to sell power to private customers. This continued until 1919 when the city fathers found it less expensive to buy power wholesale from the North American Chemical Company. This policy endured until 1927 when Consumers Power Company purchased the North American Chemical Company.

    During much of its history, BCELP facilities within the city competed side by side with those of Consumers Energy. However, in 1992, Consumers Energy agreed to sell its remaining distribution system inside the city limits to Bay City, keeping only the high voltage (46,000 kilovolts) sub-transmission facilities and the substation serving the GM Powertrain plant.

    In the 1992 deal, BCELP received substations at Water Street, Sage, and Morton Street (Prestolite) as well as duplicate distribution facilities throughout the city from Consumers. Since obtaining these substations, the utility has worked to integrate these facilities into the City's distribution system to become a single functioning system.

    With the 1982 installation of a 5,755 kW dual-fuel generating unit at 1000 S. Water Street, Bay City began generating its own power again for the first time since 1919. During 1986, an additional 6,955 kW dual-fuel generating unit was installed at the Water Street Peaking Plant.

    Two additional 2,500 kW generating units were installed during 1991 at the Bay Metro Water Plant and the Waste Water Plant. Construction was completed in 1993 at 619 N. Henry Street for the installation of two 7,790 kW dual-fuel generating units, bringing Bay City Electric Light & Power's total generating capacity to 33,290 kW.

    In 1978, the utility joined with other municipal utilities in Michigan to form the Michigan Public Power Agency (MPPA). The purpose was to pool their resources to jointly own pieces of a large central station coal-fired generation with the investor owned utilities.

    MPPA is a non-profit, customer owned, joint action power supply agency established in 1978 under Michigan Public Act 448. The Agency provides economic benefits to its 17 municipal members and is involved in joint ownership of electrical generating plants and transmission facilities, as well as the pooling of utility resources. Other members are Chelsea, Charlevoix, Eaton Rapids, Grand Haven, Harbor Springs, Hart, Howell, Lansing, Lowell, Marquette, Petoskey, Portland, St. Louis, Traverse City, Wyandotte, Zeeland.

    Through MPPA, Bay City owns 5.2 megawatts of the 820 megawatts Campbell 3 plant operated by Consumers Energy and 8.7 megawatts of the 1,260 megawatts Belle River Plant operated by Detroit Edison. These plants were completed in 1980 and 1985, respectively, and have helped the utility keep its rates low.



    Printer Friendly Story View
    Prior Article

    February 10, 2020
    by: Rachel Reh
    Family Winter Fun Fest is BACC Hot Spot for 2/10/2020
    Next Article

    February 2, 2020
    by: Kathy Rupert-Mathews
    MOVIE REVIEW: "Just Mercy" ... You Will Shed Tears, or at Least You Should

    "The BUZZ" - Read Feedback From Readers!

    Mayorshannon Says:       On March 24, 2014 at 01:59 PM
    Dave,
    Nice article- I think its very important to emphasize that the City's electric rates are as much as 20% lower than out city rates and reliability is very high.
    As much coverage as we get on wastewater rates I thought it was important to note.

    Regards,
    Chris Shannon
    Agree? or Disagree?


    Dave Rogers

    Dave Rogers is a former editorial writer for the Bay City Times and a widely read,
    respected journalist/writer in and around Bay City.
    (Contact Dave Via Email at carraroe@aol.com)

    More from Dave Rogers

    Send This Story to a Friend!       Letter to the editor       Link to this Story
    Printer-Friendly Story View


    --- Advertisments ---
         


  • 0200 Nd: 03-24-2024 d 4 cpr 0






    12/31/2020 P3v3-0200-Ad.cfm

    SPONSORED LINKS



    12/31/2020 drop ads P3v3-0200-Ad.cfm


    Designed at OJ Advertising, Inc. (V3) (v3) Software by Mid-Michigan Computer Consultants
    Bay City, Michigan USA
    All Photographs and Content Copyright © 1998 - 2024 by OJA/MMCC. They may be used by permission only.
    P3V3-0200 (1) 0   ID:Default   UserID:Default   Type:reader   R:x   PubID:mbC   NewspaperID:noPaperID
      pid:1560   pd:11-18-2012   nd:2024-03-24   ax:2024-03-28   Site:5   ArticleID:8906   MaxA: 999999   MaxAA: 999999
    claudebot