Hydro Ottawa

Hydro Ottawa is a regulated electricity distribution company operating in the City of Ottawa and the Village of Casselman in Ontario, Canada. As the third-largest municipally owned electrical utility in Ontario, Hydro Ottawa maintains one of the safest, most reliable and cost-effective electricity distribution systems in the province, and serves over 320,000 residential and commercial customers across a service area of 1,100 square kilometres.

Hydro Ottawa was formed in 1834 when the fire was born. The history of the supply of electricity began in the 1880s with private electrical suppliers, became public in the early 1900s and continued in competition with private suppliers, chiefly those of Thomas Ahearn and his companies, until the 1950s.

In 1882, Electric lighting in Ottawa started in at Young's mill in Lebreton Flats (the previous year had seen Eddy's mill lit by electricity, on the Hull side). A year later, the House of Commons and the Senate were illuminated.

The first electric street lighting in Canada occurred on Victoria Day, 1884 when the Peterborough Light and Power Company lit 17 arc lights on George Street in Peterborough Ontario. In 1885, the Royal Electric Company (of Montreal, formed in 1884) set up street lighting systems in Charlottetown and St. John's, Newfoundland. Ottawa had originally intended on using this company to light the city's streets, however, council contracted Ottawa Electric Light Company (formed 1884) to install 165 arc lamps on the city's streets. That company, which had as a director one of its founders Francis Clemow, along with founder lumber baron G. B. Pattee, had built a power station which used a water-powered generator. In May 1885, the streets of Ottawa were lit by electricity.

In 1887, the Chaudière Electric Light and Power Company was formed by Thomas Ahearn, a local man and partner of Ahearn & Soper, formed in the early 1880s. In 1890, there were two electrical providers, (Clemow's) Ottawa Electric Light Company, and Ahearn's company, Chaudière Electric Light and Power Company.

In 1894 Ahearn merged Ottawa Electric Light Company, and Chaudière Electric Light and Power Company, and bought out Standard Electric Company of Ottawa (Limited) in the process, naming it Ottawa Electric Company, creating a virtual monopoly on electrical services in Ottawa. (Erskine Henry Bronson played a role in the development of this company).

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