User:Bangor.hydro/sandbox

Bangor Hydro Electric Company (Bangor Hydro) is an electric utility wholly owned by Emera Inc.. It serves a population of 192,000 in a 5,275 square mile area in eastern and east coastal Maine. Bangor Hydro is a member of New England Power Pool and is interconnected with the New England Utilities to the south and with the New Brunswick Power Corp. to the north.

History
Bangor Hydro Electric Company officially became Bangor Hydro in 1925, although its history was in the making long before that. On January 1, 1900, Bangor Railway and Electric Company, a predecessor company of Bangor Hydro, utilized the first hydro-electric station in Maine, located in Veazie, to operate 30 miles of electric railway, about 10 thousand incandescent electric lamps and nearly 100 metric horsepower of small electric motors in greater Bangor area.

On March 1,1925, Bangor Hydro Electric Company incorporated with the consolidation of several small electric companies in eastern Maine. This allowed BHE to serve 20,000 customers in central and eastern Maine. On July 1, 1964, Bangor Hydro completed construction of its oil-fired station called Graham Station in Veazie. This is the last generating station solely constructed by Bangor Hydro.

On September 25,1998, Bangor Hydro signed an agreement to sell it's power plants as required by the State electric industry restructuring law. Beginning March 1,2000, Bangor Hydro was no longer allowed to generate electricity but to remain responsible for the delivery aspects of electricity service. Bangor Hydro continues in this role as a provider of transmission and distribution facilities and other services necessary to deliver electricity.

In 2001, Emera purchased Bangor Hydro. Emera then became the first Canadian company to purchase an American utility.

Smart Grid Upgrade
In 2011, Emera rolled out power line communication-based "smart meters" to 107,000 subscribers (192,000 people) in Bangor Hydro service area, having ruled out the wireless meter option in favor of gaining experience with powerline systems. ''These were seen as a major gateway into homes by Qualcomm Atheros, Apple, Verizon and others. Verizon in particular had strengthened its relationships with power utilities and began offering home monitoring   while it slowed down deployment of FTTH, possibly in favor of a future P1901 solution along the lines of Qualcomm Atheros' Hy-Fi offerings.''