Tucson Electric Power

Tucson Electric Power (TEP) is an electric utility company serving southern Arizona in the United States. It is a subsidiary of Fortis, which announced its acquisition of parent company UNS Energy in 2013.

Kino Veterans Memorial Stadium, a baseball stadium on Tucson's south side, was once named Tucson Electric Park for TEP.

History of Tucson Electric Power

According to historian David Leighton, of the Arizona Daily Star newspaper, around 1882, Royal A. Johnson started a light plant in Tucson in order replace Tucson’s oil lamps with electric lights. His new idea received little support and his plant went belly-up after a couple years.

Frank E. "Red" Russell, an employee of the Western Union Telegraph Co., in Tucson, on occasion did repairs on the Arctic Ice Works, an ice plant that was also owned by Johnson and learned of the failed light plant a few years earlier. This association with Johnson sparked an interest in lighting Tucson.

In 1892, Russell was one of a group of individuals that came together to form the Tucson Electric Light & Power Co. which was located at 116-120 N. Church Street (now Church Ave). Russell was named the first manager-operator of this new firm and was paid $40 a month. Four years later the company purchased the Tucson Gas Company and by 1901 it was known as the Tucson Gas, Electric Light and Power Co.

In 1904 the generating facilities for the Tucson Gas, Electric Light and Power Co. were relocated to West Sixth Street, across from the Russell family home at 306 W. Sixth St. This new site would later serve as Tucson Electric Power Co.’s headquarters, from 1967 to 1999.

Note:The new Tucson Electric Power headquarters at 88 E. Broadway sits on land that was part of the ground that Russell as a Tucson City Councilman and others obtained back in 1899.

External links

• Tucson Electric Power official site