Happy Birthday KUA! Utility marks 123 of municipal electric service

Kissimmee Utility Authority, you don't look a day over 100.

Friday marked the 123rd anniversary of municipally-owned electric service in Kissimmee.

During a Kissimmee City Council meeting on June 28, 1901, a resolution was passed authorizing the city’s purchase of Kissimmee Electric Light Company from W.C. Maynard for $4,293.59. Maynard, a Kissimmee resident, had owned and operated the private power company in Kissimmee under contract with the city since December 4, 1900.

Upon the purchase, the council appointed a committee to manage the electric system.

According to KUA, the utility’s first purchase was a 15-kilowatt generator in 1901 — enough to power all of 150 100-watt lightbulbs --- or 13 coffeemakers. That was followed by adding three diesel generators in the 1920s to serve the approximately 200 electric customers Kissimmee had at that time -- a very different day and age.

KUA reports it is Florida’s sixth largest community-owned utility and the fifth oldest municipal utility in the state, following Starke (1890), Jacksonville (1895), Ocala (1897) and Williston (1900). In addition, Kissimmee residents began enjoying the benefits of electricity 22 years before their neighbors to the north in Orlando (1923).