100+ Years of GEUS History
 The City of Greenville has produced electric power continuously
for more than 100 years. The first power plant went into operation
on March 4, 1891. The tiny Town Branch plant, with just two dynamos
powered by a steam engine, produced electricity for the first
municipally-owned electric utility in Texas.
The plant powered 1000 homes and 40 street lights. It operated
only at night unless there was a matinee performance at the King
Opera House or someone with enough resources to pay the daytime
fee planned an extravagant afternoon party with drapes drawn
and lights on! The city charged a fee to fire up the plant during
the day until 1909.
To overcome the isolation of having generation and distribution
facilities entirely within Greenville, the City Council pursued
a tie line to Garland. The line ensured power for the city in
the event of local outages. In 1960, the cities of Garland, Denton,
and Bryan joined Greenville in a study to determine the feasibility
and possible cost savings of a pooled operation that would allow
a reduction in installed capacity for each city. The Texas Municipal
Power Pool, created in 1963, was the result.
Changes in Texas Law allowed for the establishment of Texas
Municipal Power Agency, TMPA, in 1975. TMPA could perform all
the duties of a utility system except selling power to customers
other than its members. The member cities agreed to fund TMPA
in return for rights to future power generated by the Agency.
TMPA built the Gibbons Creek steam generating plant, which went
on line in 1983, and purchased 6.2% ownership in the nuclear
power plant at Comanche Peak. The Gibbons Creek plant later converted
to burn low sulfur coal from the Powder River Basin in Colorado.
Comanche Peak ownership was later terminated.
 The
Greenville Electric Utility System became a separate entity from
the City of Greenville in 1988, when voters approved the utility's
autonomy. GEUS currently provides a PILOT (payment
in lieu of taxes) to the City, supports the City of Greenville Economic
Development Board with 1% of adjusted gross revenues, and transfers
an additional 3% of adjusted gross revenues to the City annually.
The Utility's Board of Trustees and General Manger have lowered
residential rates, making them competitive with other utilities
in the state, through extrication from the Comanche Peak agreement,
sales of excess generating capacity to Weatherford and College
Station, and renegotiation of natural gas contracts.
GEUS continues to improve its reliability and
service while planning future changes as a result of deregulation.
Greenville played a major role, in conjunction with the Texas Public
Power Association, in protecting our local citizens' right to retain
local control of the electric system through action of the Electric
Utility Board. Our entry into cable TV and high speed Internet enhances
the services we provide for our consumer-owners in Greenville.
In 1999, Greenville, Texas' economic development leaders were
unable to attract certain businesses and on the verge of losing
existing companies due to a lack of high speed Internet.
In response, Mayor Sue Ann Harting asked SBC for a commitment
to deploy DSL. That request was denied. The city's cable franchise,
Time Warner, also declined to commit to cable modem Internet
deployment.
Greenville found itself in a situation similar to one that many
towns had faced years ago when railroads changed transportation.
If the railroad was not routed through a town, that town just
might die. What would happen to Greenville if the information
superhighway did not come through the city?
Greenville citizens were not willing to take that chance. They
took destiny into their own hands by amending the city charter
to allow their revenue-only supported, municipally-owned electric
system to build a hybrid fiber coaxial system to make high speed
Internet available to everyone. Digital cable TV was offered
as an option on that same system.
Once the citizens had committed to this venture, the city's
incumbent telephone and cable franchises found ways of deploying
that high speed Internet that they had only recently declared
not feasible in Greenville.
 In 2001, citizens began connecting to the city's state-of-the-art
system that accessed all 10,000 of the homes and business in
Greenville. Public acceptance has been very good, with more than
4,500 of those homes and businesses (as of June 2005) now choosing
the new municipal services after less than four years in business.
Financially, this non-tax supported venture was seeing black
ink earlier than expected.
Public acceptance readily came from slightly lower cost to the
consumer plus faster Internet speeds and more cable TV channels
than the incumbents offered. (The existing cable company wasn't
even offering ESPN 2 in 2000). Consumers also welcomed the chance
to have these multiple services placed on one bill with "one-stop" local
customer service to handle all of the municipal services - one
inclusive bill for water, sewer, garbage, electric and cable
TV and Internet as options.
That information superhighway got built through Greenville and
prospective businesses still ask if high speed Internet is available.
Greenville's economic development gurus can now proudly answer, "Yes,
and at download speeds of 6 megabytes/second".
We kind of think that President Roosevelt stated our position
best when he said:
“Where a community...is not satisfied with the service
rendered or the rates charged by the private utility, it has
the undeniable right as one of the functions of government to
set up...its own
governmentally owned and operated service.” - Franklin
D. Roosevelt
Heat Waves
by Carol Taylor
(July 5, 2009) With the exception of the summer of 1980, some
of our hottest weather was in the 1890s and 1920s, well before the
advent of central air-conditioning or even ceiling fans and box
fans. Human beings are adaptable creatures so they were able to
cope, but not comfortably.
However, Greenville had a leg up on the neighboring communities
in Texas and probably in most of the South. On November 3, 1890,
the Greenville City Council passed a resolution authorizing Mayor
R. L. Porter to contract with Wayne Electric Company, probably of
Fort Wayne, Indiana, to install a small electric light plant in
Greenville. The site of the first electric plant was just west of
St. John Street on Town Branch between Stonewall Street and the
East Line and Red River Railroad right of way. Town Branch has since
disappeared but the area is now crossed by the Audie Murphy Overpass.
The first light plant opened on March 4, 1891, and was powered
by two dynamos capable of providing electricity for forty street
lights and 1000 homes and businesses. There were no meters, one
flat fee was charged for businesses and homes. Shortly after, the
plant moved a block east to Stonewall Street where it occupied a
whole block from the East Line on the north and the Cotton Belt
on the south. The plant ran only a night unless the King Opera House
had a matinee performance. The City Council allowed stores to have
ceiling fans but not homes. Electric irons were not to be used in
homes, either. But there were electric lights until about 10:00
P.M. every evening.
Operating a city-owned electric plant was very costly, especially
in a small town. The endeavor ran into financial difficulties during
the economic depression of 1895-1897. To meet the demand for more
electrical power, City Council arranged to borrow $15,000 from First
National Bank. But at that time, a city council could not legally
mortgage city property in Texas. The only source of revenue was
a bond election; an issue that has never been extremely popular
in Greenville. However, one member of the City Council, M. M. Arnold,
offered to advance the money, take title to the plant by “sale”
and operate it until its profits repaid the debt and then deed the
plant back to the City of Greenville. For some reason, this thinly
veiled scheme worked; probably to avoid a bond election.
It should be noted that M. M. Arnold sold his home to the City
of Greenville and the Library Board at an extremely low price in
1903 for the site of the original Carnegie Library. Arnold was a
descendent of two old Greenville families, the Arnolds and the Oldhams
who were in the vicinity when the town was founded in 1847. He was
one of those people who truly believed in Greenville.
The power plant was moved in 1909 to the water works on the Sabine
River in the north part of town. Today there is a historical marker
at that site explaining that Greenville has the oldest municipally
owned power plant in the state. And today, now known as GEUS, it
still keeps us pleasantly cool during a hot summer like this one.
Timeline
- 1888
City water & electric franchise awarded to Greenville Water
and Electric Light Company, which erected a building on the Sabine
River, but never installed generators
 1890
City contracted with Wayne Electric Company to build municipal
power plant on Town Branch
- 1891
Power plant began
generating electricity for night time use with a steam engine
& two dynamos
- 1908
City purchased Greenville Water and Electric Light Company
- 1909
City power plant moved to Sabine River site, two steam generators
installed, plant began generating power 24 hours a day
- 1928
City of Greenville's electric utility praised in Municipal Utilities
Magazine
 1933
Power plant expanded with installation of two diesel generators
- 1938
Additional diesel generator installed
- 1942
First dual-fired unit installed to take advantage of low natural
gas prices
- 1947
Capacity increased with additional dual-fired unit
- 1950
Greenville Evening Banner Centennial Edition published history
of the electric utility
- 1952
Capacity increased with additional dual-fired unit
- 1953
Capacity increased with additional dual-fired unit
- 1955
City of Greenville refused purchase offer from Texas Power &
Light
- 1958
Capacity increased with additional dual-fired unit
- 1960
Greenville interconnected with Brazos Electric Coop cities of
Garland, Denton & Bryan
- 1963
Creation of TMPP, Texas Municipal Power Pool, with Greenville,
Garland, & Denton as members
- 1966
First steam generator installed
- 1967
Second steam generator installed
- 1969
Bryan joined TMPP
- 1975
TMPA, Texas Municipal Power Agency, created
TMPA Gibbons Creek Steam Electric Station project approved
- 1977
Third steam generator installed
- 1983
Gibbons Creek power plant began operation
- 1987
City electric utility began power sales to Weatherford
- 1988
City Council-appointed Study Committee recommends autonomous Board
to govern electric department
Council votes to allow voters to decide on “…establishing
an autonomous Electric Utility Board”.
Greenville Electric Utility System approved by 4-1 vote of the
citizens of Greenville
Utility General Manager hired
- 1989
Greenville Electric Utility System became fully autonomouswhen
the Texas Legislature passed legislation giving the following
authorities:
*Rate Setting
*Bond Issuance
*Eminent Domain
Lowered Residential Rates by 19%
- 1991
100th anniversary of electric utility
- 1992
Consumer Service Center opened
- 1993
Rates restructured
Sabine River diesel plant overhauled
- 1995
GEUS achieved 6.14¢ per kilowatt hour average cost of electricity
Fiber optic network installed for Utility, City, GISD & County
communications
Public Utility Regulatory Act amended to open Texas electric utilities
to wholesale competition
- 1996
Gibbons Creek generating plant converted to burn low sulfur coal
Greenville Electric Utility System began PILOT (payment in lieu
of taxes) payments to City
Fiber optic network expanded
- 1997
Diesel plant retired
Electric Utility Board issues revenue bonds on behalf of the citizens
of Greenville, marking the first time in Texas history a non-city
council governmental agency has done this
Bond issuance with cash defeasance lowers system debt by $5 million
- 1999
1000 kW diesel unit installed for "black start" capability
in event of system-wide failure
Electric utility retail competition passed into Texas law
- 2000
Voters approved Greenville Electric Utility System as first municipal
cable TV/high speed Internet service in Texas
Diesel plant demolished
Greenville Electric Utility System renamed GEUS
- 2001
110th anniversary of the date when the city's first power plant
began operation Greenville Herald Banner Article
- 2002
High Speed Internet and Cable TV service available citywide providing
185 TV channels, 37 audio channels, TV-accessed Internet service,
and interactive guide
Adult pay-per-view programming removed from Cable TV in response
to citizen group
- 2003
Completion of 15th year since Board was formed
- electric rates down by 20%
- local debt reduced by $13 million
- system improvements: $26 million
- transfers to the City of Greenville: $37.9 million
Installation of a $10 million state-of-the-art hybrid fiber-coaxial
cable TV and Internet system
- 2004
GEUS high speed Internet and cable TV subscriber count grows to
more than 4,000 homes & business and operational revenues
begin to exceed expenses
Residential electric base rate reduced 1.8%
- 2006
GEUS General Manager Tom Darte retired. He was
succeeded by David McCalla, Assistant General Manager under Darte.
- 2008
GEUS purchases former main post office on Wesley
Street for new service center
GEUS announces plans to add 25 MW of fast start natural
gas generation to existing local steam plant site.
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