Our First Big Power Plant

Edison designed and built his first major power plant in the Big Apple in 1882—a reported 120-volt system in downtown Manhattan. This also was the world’s first principal power station. Unfortunately, Edison built it based on direct current, an approach that would become dated by the next decade, as was proven by one of his employees. Nikola Tesla, a Yugoslavian immigrant who briefly worked at the Edison laboratory in New Jersey in 1884, was on to something with his ideas about alternating current.

Con Edison, which started out as the New York Gas Light Company in 1823, is the current-day result of more than 170 mergers and acquisitions. The nucleus of Con Edison was the Edison Electric Illuminating Company, formed in 1880.