Cleveland Public Power (also known as CPP) is a publicly owned

electricity generation Electricity generation is the process of generating electric power from sources of primary energy. For electric utility, utilities in the electric power industry, it is the stage prior to its Electricity delivery, delivery (Electric power transmi ...

and

distribution Distribution may refer to: Mathematics *Distribution (mathematics), generalized functions used to formulate solutions of partial differential equations * Probability distribution, the probability of a particular value or value range of a vari ...

company in

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

. It was founded in 1907 by then-Cleveland mayor Tom L. Johnson. Prior to 1983, it was known as Municipal Light (or "Muny Light" for short). CPP does not have sufficient capacity to compete across the entire

Greater Cleveland The Cleveland metropolitan area, or Greater Cleveland as it is more commonly known, is the metropolitan area surrounding the city of Cleveland in Northeast Ohio, United States. According to the 2020 United States Census results, the five-county ...

area. Rather, it is intended to create additional capacity and to create a benchmark price in order to prevent

price gouging Price gouging is a pejorative term used to describe the situation when a seller increases the prices of goods, services, or commodities to a level much higher than is considered reasonable or fair. Usually, this event occurs after a demand or ...

by local private utilities. In December 1978, Mayor

Dennis Kucinich Dennis John Kucinich (; born October 8, 1946) is an American politician. A U.S. Representative from Ohio from 1997 to 2013, he was also a candidate for the Democratic nomination for president of the United States in 2004 and 2008. He ran for ...

refused to sell the company when a number of

bank A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Because ...

s, which were heavily invested in Muny Light's largest privately owned competitor, the

Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company FirstEnergy Corp is an electric utility headquartered in Akron, Ohio. It was established when Ohio Edison acquired Centerior Energy in 1997. Its subsidiaries and affiliates are involved in the distribution, transmission, and generation of electri ...

(better known as CEI or The Illuminating Company) refused to roll over the city's debt, as had previously been customary. This was seen as a bad move at the time; unable to pay its debts, the city became the first since the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

to enter default, which cost Kucinich his job in next year's mayoral election. However, Kucinich's decision was later vindicated by both city officials and the

U.S. Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and powe ...

, which found that CEI and the banks had acted improperly. In December 2006, a new commissioner for CPP, Ivan Henderson, took over the reins from the incumbent James Majer. Under the new commissioner's guidance CPP is poised to take over the streetlight maintenance from CEI.

External links

Cleveland Public Power
* {{authority control Companies based in Cleveland Municipal electric utilities of the United States 1907 establishments in Ohio