Since 1940 powering #RuralAmerica in #Tennessee! A history that deserved a book, which can be downloaded here https://lnkd.in/g-jfgad.
I wrote about it in the past we should connect the historic dots of different large infrastructure ages, I could go all the way back to ancient water distribution systems, then rustics roads, passing by the rudimentary post services, and if we accelerate to couple of centuries ago, we had the rail, the pavemented roads, the electrification, the telegraph, and this is when starts to the history of Electrical Co-Ops, like Appalachian.
Can you imagine how difficult it could be in the early 1900s to build power lines in #RuralAmerica?
In 1914 some private power line distribution systems started to be built and operated by local farmers. Connecting to the history of my family in Brazil, I remember the water mills running small electrification motors!
The first generating plant in Jefferson City was operated only from 4 p.m. until 10 p.m. and provided service to a total of 50 customers. They were charged 15 cents per kilowatt-hour. The electric company in Dandridge, operating on a similar schedule, blinked the lights three times each night at 9:45 to remind customers that they’d be back in the dark again shortly. Sometime later, power began to be available to customers for four or five hours during the day
In 1927, #Tennessee Public Service Company (TPSCO) consolidated most of the private operations. and in 1938, all the electric facilities in the area were purchased by the Tennessee Valley Authority.
In 1939, local policymakers started to discuss the possibility to create a local #rural electric co-op, and in 1940 the dream come true and the co-op is created and started to serve the area!
At the end of 1940 http://aecoop.org/ starts to operate and power distribution, and this is just the first step of how this electrical co-op changed the life of its members.
Looking at these pictures, it should be possible for us to imagine how difficult and interesting was the work like during those days!
In 1950 comes a new headquarter and in 1952 a fact that stays in the memory of all the workers and family involved in the Co-Op big snowstorm, and employees working non-stop for 14 days to recover the power lines!
In the 1970s arrives the computer age and an IBM computer is installed to operate the billing.
in the 1980s comes #SCADA, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCADA a popular system until these days is installed, as you can see we had #IoT, or connected device even before #Internet :)
1990 was the era of the expansion of the network and the 2000s the decade of power efficiency!
In 2017 starts the #Fiber journey, the co-op understood they need to use their powerlines to bring more than energy, they need to start delivering #Internet! http://aecoop.org/content/fiber-timeline
A plan to build 400 miles of Fiber in 2–3 years is approved, in 2019 there was 155 miles built, at the end of 2019 a partnership with https://www.trilight.net/ is signed for the operations of the #FFTH services.
What is the status of 2020?
- In March, fiber is accessible to over 2,132 Co-op homes and businesses!
- April, fiber services have passed 2,437 homes and businesses.
- End of 2020, fiber available to over 11,000 homes and businesses.
- 6,500 homes and businesses are within the New Market and Piedmont grant area.
