Mingled hydro and steam power production in California — Past, present, and future

THE development in the United States of the central-station industry from its inception in San Francisco in 1879 and in New York in 1882, to the present, has been made in two broad phases. The initial or pioneer phase includes the first isolated steam-electric plants serving lighting customers, followed by small hydroelectric plants serving nearby customers and later (in Oregon in 1889) with the development of higher transmission voltages, serving customers remote from the generating plants. Mingled steam and hydro power was inaugurated in 1895 when the Folsom hydroelectric plant was connected to a steam-electric plant at Sacramento. In 1899, also at Sacramento, and again in the San Francisco Bay region in 1902, distant hydroelectric plants were connected with each other and with local steam plants. It may be said that these interconnections of remote hydro supplies with steam-electric plants culminated the initial phase.