The United Illuminating Company (UI) is a regional electric distribution company based in
Orange, Connecticut
Orange is a town in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 14,280 at the 2020 census. The town is governed by a Board of Selectmen.
History
The Paugusset, an Algonquian people, once lived in the area that is now Orang ...
. Established in 1899, UI is engaged in the purchase, transmission, distribution and sale of electricity and related services to 325,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers in 17 towns and cities in the greater New Haven and Bridgeport areas. It is a subsidiary of
Avangrid
Avangrid, Inc. (formerly Energy East and Iberdrola USA), is an energy services and delivery company. AVANGRID serves about 3.1 million customers throughout New England, Pennsylvania and New York in the United States.
History
In 2008 Iberdrola ...
.
History
UI’s roots can be traced to 1881, with the founding of the
New Haven Electric Lighting Company, established to provide electric lighting to the city of
New Haven
New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,02 ...
. The company had a troubled start and in 1883 was reorganized as the New Haven Electric Company.
In 1899, the New Haven Electric Company, under the leadership of James English, acquired the
Bridgeport Electric Light Company. The new company, renamed The United Illuminating Company, flourished in the new century as Connecticut became an important manufacturing center, and UI’s franchise spread outward from the cities of New Haven and
Bridgeport
Bridgeport is the most populous city and a major port in the U.S. state of Connecticut. With a population of 148,654 in 2020, it is also the fifth-most populous in New England. Located in eastern Fairfield County at the mouth of the Pequonnoc ...
to outlying towns. Regulated as a utility, UI for many years exclusively owned and operated the electric generation, transmission and distribution facilities in the greater New Haven and Bridgeport areas.
[John D. Fassett. ''UI: History of an Electric Company, A Saga of Problems, Personalities and Power Politics''. np, np, 1991.]
In 2000, as a result of Connecticut’s 1998 deregulation legislation, UI was required to sell its electricity generation plants, including the facilities at New Haven and Bridgeport harbors, and to divest from other generation projects including the
Connecticut Yankee and
Millstone
Millstones or mill stones are stones used in gristmills, for grinding wheat or other grains. They are sometimes referred to as grindstones or grinding stones.
Millstones come in pairs: a convex stationary base known as the ''bedstone'' and ...
nuclear power plants.
In that same year, UI became a subsidiary of
UIL Holdings Corporation
UIL Holdings Corporation was a diversified energy delivery company serving a total of 690,000 electric and natural gas utility customers in 66 communities across two states, with combined total assets of over $4 billion. In 2015 it merged with I ...
, a New Haven-based corporation structured to hold both the regulated UI and other non-regulated business entities.
UI continues to own and operate the transmission and distribution delivery infrastructure within its 17-town service territory. (*)
Major projects
United Illuminating, along with
Eversource Energy
Eversource Energy is a publicly traded, Fortune 500 energy company headquartered in Hartford, Connecticut, and Boston, Massachusetts, with several regulated subsidiaries offering retail electricity, natural gas service and water service to ap ...
, previously known as Northeast Utilities (parent company of Connecticut Light and Power), has participated in a number of projects to improve the reliability of the
power grid
An electrical grid is an interconnected network for electricity delivery from producers to consumers. Electrical grids vary in size and can cover whole countries or continents. It consists of:Kaplan, S. M. (2009). Smart Grid. Electrical Power ...
in southwest Connecticut. The first, involving construction of the $350 million 345-kilovolt
Bethel-Norwalk transmission line through the western part of the state, was constructed entirely by Eversource Energy.
Both companies together completed the 69-mile (112 km), 345-kilovolt
Middletown-Norwalk transmission line at a cost of $900 million. It was energized in 2009.
Notes
External links
The United Illuminating Company websiteUIL Holdings CorporationCT Electric Utility Service Map
{{DEFAULTSORT:United Illuminating Company
Energy in New England
Electric power companies of the United States
Energy companies established in 1899
1899 establishments in Connecticut