Seattle City Light has been lighting up lives in the city we serve since 1910, but our roots go back to the very beginnings of electricity. The light bulb was just seven years old in 1886 when the Seattle Electric Light Company launched the first incandescent lighting system west of the Rockies.

For the next 13 years, Seattle was served by a variety of "neighborhood electric companies," since the direct current then in use could be transmitted only short distances. New alternating current technology soon made it possible to serve larger areas and by 1900 the small, competing companies were consolidated into the Seattle Electric Company. Rates were 20 cents per kilowatt-hour--six times Seattle's current residential rate.