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48-534: LCRA does not receive state appropriations or have the ability to levy taxes. Instead, LCRA is funded by revenue it generates, the vast majority of which comes from producing and transmitting electricity. A very small portion of LCRA's revenue comes from selling water. The Fayette Power Project is a three-unit coal-fired power plant in Fayette County that provides 1,625 megawatts (MW). ( Austin Energy co-owns two of

96-647: A mechanical television station, W9XR, which began in 1929 after the company installed the first 50,000 watt radio transmitter in Chicago for its two radio stations. The Wall Street Crash of 1929 and ensuing Great Depression , caused the collapse of Insull's public utility holding company empire. When Insull's fortune started to fade, he sold both WENR and WBCN along with W9XR, to the National Broadcasting Company in March 1931. Two years after its purchase of

144-534: A stenographer at Vanity Fair . Through a newspaper ad, the 19-year-old became the private secretary and bookkeeper to Colonel George Gouraud , the London representative of Thomas Edison's telephone companies. When he learned of a job with Edison in the United States , Insull indicated he would be glad to have it, provided it was as Thomas Edison's personal secretary. In 1881, at the age of 21, Insull immigrated to

192-450: A 56-year-old millionairess playing a gleeful 18-year-old, the whole production bought for her like a trinket by a man Herman knew to be an unscrupulous manipulator. Herman began to write: "Miss Gladys Wallis, an aging, hopelessly incompetent amateur, opened last night in ..." Then Herman passed out, slumped over the top of his typewriter. Mankiewicz resurrected the experience in writing the screenplay for Citizen Kane , incorporating it into

240-439: A demand metered billing system, measuring not only total power consumption, but a set of rates for low-demand and high-demand electric use times. By 1897, Insull had worked out his formulas enough to offer Chicago electric customers two-tiered electric rates. With the new system, many homeowners found their bills lowered by 32% within a year. In 1896, Insull became a US citizen. In 1897, he incorporated another electric utility,

288-420: A monopoly, he kept his prices low and campaigned vigorously for regulation. Often regarded as a fictionalized biography of William Randolph Hearst , Orson Welles 's film Citizen Kane is, in part, inspired by the life of Samuel Insull. "It was a real man who built an opera house for the soprano of his choice, and much in the movie was borrowed from that story," Welles wrote. Welles gave Maurice Seiderman

336-456: A photograph of Insull, with mustache, to use as a model for the makeup design of the old Charles Foster Kane. Welles denied that the character of Susan Alexander was based on Gladys Wallis, but co-writer Herman J. Mankiewicz did incorporate a related experience into the script. In June 1925, after a 26-year absence, Gladys Wallis Insull returned to the stage in a charity revival of The School for Scandal that ran two weeks in Chicago. When

384-574: A seven-week trial, he and 16 co-defendants were acquitted of all charges after two hours of jury deliberation. Insull was born on November 11, 1859, in London , the son of Insull Insull, a tradesman and lay preacher who was active in the temperance movement , and Emma Short. He was one of five siblings who survived to adulthood. His younger brother, Martin , became a major executive at Sam's companies. Insull's career began as an apprentice clerk for various local businesses at age 14. He went on to become

432-663: A wide range of conservation programs for water users within its river basin. It also operates an environmental laboratory, monitors the water quality of the lower Colorado River, and regulates on-site sewage systems to limit pollution and help protect the health of those enjoying the Highland Lakes. LCRA's community services programs include the Community Development Partnership Program, which has awarded almost $ 42 million in matching grants for 1,491 community development projects since 1995. In November 1934,

480-656: Is a natural gas-fired, combined cycle plant in Horseshoe Bay capable of producing 540 megawatts. Ferguson is among the most environmentally responsible power plants in Texas, producing 30 to 40 percent fewer emissions per unit of power than the unit it replaced. It uses about 35 percent less fuel per megawatt-hour and about one-third of the water used at a typical steam plant per unit of power. The Winchester Power Park in Fayette County provides about 176 megawatts for use primarily during peak-demand periods. The LCRA buys natural gas on

528-786: Is owned by Austin Energy and the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) and operated by LCRA. Three generating units comprise the Fayette Power Project: The main source of fuel for the Fayette Power Project is low- sulfur coal from the Powder River Basin in Wyoming . Cooling water is provided by the Fayette County Reservoir , a 2,400-acre (970 ha) freshwater reservoir . During

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576-551: Is sometimes wrongly credited with the invention of the holding company .) His holding company collapsed during the Great Depression , wiping out the life savings of 600,000 shareholders. The collapse along with the ongoing National Electric Light Association's Federal Trade Commission Investigation of the electric industry led to the enactment of the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 . Insull fled

624-555: The 2021 Texas power crisis , Fayette Power Project was reported to have lost 453MW of generation capacity across Units 1 and 2 on February 17, 2021. This article about a United States power station is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Samuel Insull Samuel Insull (November 11, 1859 – July 16, 1938) was a British American business magnate. He was an innovator and investor based in Chicago who helped create an integrated electrical infrastructure in

672-677: The Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee Railroad , Chicago Rapid Transit Company , Chicago Aurora and Elgin Railroad , Gary Railways , and Chicago South Shore and South Bend Railroad . He helped modernize these railroads and others. As a result of owning these diverse companies, Insull is credited with being one of the early proponents for regulation of industry. He saw that federal and state regulation would recognize electric utilities as natural monopolies , allowing them to grow with little competition and to sell electricity to broader segments of

720-498: The United States . Insull created holding companies that purchased utilities and railroads . Insull was responsible for the building of the Chicago Civic Opera House in 1929. Due to the Great Depression , his vast Midwest holding company empire collapsed, and he was accused of profiting personally by selling worthless stock to unsuspecting investors who trusted him because of his position and reputation. Following

768-420: The regulated monopoly , a uniquely American institution that included utility companies. This came from a combination of his business persona and his political one. On the one hand, he abhorred the waste of competing power producers, whose inefficiency would often double the cost of production. On the other hand, he believed in the citizen's right to fair treatment. So while he bought up rival companies and created

816-443: The 1990s to increase public access to the Highland Lakes and lower Colorado River. LCRA also worked with communities in its service area on projects designed to boost communities' economic development and improve their local quality of life. Fayette Power Project The Fayette Power Project , also known as Sam Seymour Power Plant , is a coal -fired power plant located near La Grange, Texas in Fayette County, Texas . It

864-543: The Commonwealth Electric Light & Power Co. In 1907, Insull's two companies formally merged to create the Commonwealth Edison Co. During a Chicago meeting on October 8, 1918, he introduced Professor Thomas Garrigue Masaryk as the president of the future Czechoslovak Republic, de facto. As more people became connected to the electric grid, Insull's company, which had an exclusive franchise from

912-604: The Great Lakes Broadcasting Company in 1927 and purchased Chicago radio stations WENR and WBCN; the two stations were merged on June 1, 1927, with Insull paying a million dollars for WENR alone. Insull moved the stations first into the Strauss Building, then into Insull's Civic Opera House , where WENR became an affiliate of the NBC Blue Network . Insull's Great Lakes Broadcasting Company also included

960-627: The Insulls visited Paris to see the Bastille Day festivities. Insull suffered from a heart ailment, and his wife Gladys had asked him not to take the Métro because it was bad for his heart. Nevertheless, Insull had made frequent declarations that he was "now a poor man" and on July 16, 1938, he descended a long flight of stairs at the Place de la Concorde station . He died of a heart attack just as he stepped toward

1008-603: The Sim Gideon plant, and the two form the Lost Pines Power Park. The Lost Pines 1 Power Project can generate up to 511 megawatts. Lake Bastrop is the cooling pond for the Lost Pines Power Park. LCRA broke ground on a new Thomas C. Ferguson Power Plant in April 2012, about 100 yards from the site of the original Ferguson plant on Lake LBJ. The plant began operating in 2014. The old plant was decommissioned. The Ferguson facility

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1056-654: The Texas Legislature authorized the formation of the Lower Colorado River Authority to complete Buchanan Dam, where construction had been idled in 1932 following the financial collapse and bankruptcy of the Samuel Insull -controlled public utility holding company . LCRA began operations in February 1935. LCRA completed Buchanan Dam and a companion project, Inks Dam, in 1938—the first of six dams that form

1104-600: The US, complete with side whiskers to make him appear older than his years. In the decade that followed, Insull took on increasing responsibilities in Edison's business endeavors, building electrical power stations throughout the US. With several other Edison Pioneers , he participated in Henry Villard's January 1889 founding of Edison General Electric, which later became the publicly held company known as General Electric . In 1892, Insull

1152-461: The cataract's flow, but was thwarted by conservation interests and the Kentucky legislature. Samuel Insull also had interests in broadcasting. Through his long association with Chicago's Civic Opera , he thought the new medium of radio broadcasting would be a way to bring opera performances into people's homes. On hearing of the work of Westinghouse to establish a radio station in Chicago, he contacted

1200-556: The city and a furnished suite at the Civic Opera House. The Insulls had one son, Samuel Jr. Both husband and wife were patrons of the arts. Because of this Insull was instrumental in the building of Chicago's Civic Opera House , which opened November 4, 1929, with Aida . The opera and its cast were chosen by Insull. Samuel Insull was also known for his charitable works in other areas, donating large sums of money to local hospitals, then calling on others with similar resources to do

1248-533: The city, grew steadily. By 1920, when it used more than two million tons of coal annually, the company's 6,000 employees served about 500,000 customers. Annual revenues reached nearly $ 40 million. During the 1920s, its largest generating stations included the Fisk Generating Station and Crawford Station , both on the Sanitary and Ship Canal . Insull began purchasing portions of the utility infrastructure of

1296-584: The city. When it became clear that Westinghouse 's support of alternating current would win over Edison's direct current , Insull switched his support to AC in the war of the currents . His Chicago area holdings later included Federal Signal Corporation , Commonwealth Edison , Peoples Gas , and the Northern Indiana Public Service Company , and held shares of many more utilities. Insull also owned significant portions of many railroads, mainly electric interurban lines, including

1344-619: The company. Together the two companies arranged for a radio station to be built in Chicago which would be operated jointly by Commonwealth Edison and Westinghouse. KYW 's first home was the roof of the Edison Company building at 72 West Adams Street in Chicago, and it went on the air November 11, 1921. It was Chicago's first radio station. Though the partnership came to an end in 1926, with Westinghouse buying out Edison's interest in KYW, Insull's interest in broadcasting did not stop there. He formed

1392-496: The country, initially to France. When the United States asked French authorities that he be extradited, Insull moved to Greece, where there was not yet an extradition treaty with the US. He was later arrested and extradited to the United States by Turkey in 1934 to face federal prosecution on mail fraud and antitrust charges. He was defended by Chicago lawyer Floyd Thompson and found not guilty on all counts. In July 1938,

1440-786: The dams only as it releases water for other reasons, or when ordered to do so by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT). LCRA purchases 51 megawatts of wind power capacity from the Indian Mesa Wind Energy Center in West Texas and 200 megawatts from the Papalote Creek II Wind Farm near the Texas Gulf Coast. LCRA distributes electricity to its wholesale electric customers - mostly municipal utilities and electric cooperatives - and supports

1488-530: The environment and agriculture in the lower Colorado River basin. LCRA has the rights to more than 2.1 million acre-feet of water per year based mostly on surface water permits issued by the state of Texas. LCRA owns more than 40 public parks, recreation areas and river access sites along the Highland Lakes and lower Colorado River. LCRA's McKinney Roughs Nature Park and Matagorda Bay Nature Parks have natural science centers that offer outdoor educational and recreational programs for youths and adults. LCRA offers

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1536-565: The first electric utility in Texas to provide wind-generated electricity to its customers from the Texas Wind Power Project, the first such project in the state. LCRA continues to evaluate additional renewable energy options that complement its existing generation portfolio. LCRA's water and community services operations have grown through the years. LCRA began programs in the 1970s and 1980s to control water pollution and monitor water quality. It expanded its parks operations beginning in

1584-659: The infusion of capital, from the Vanderbilts , from J. P. Morgan, and others, as necessary for the company's future development. Edison forgave him, but others did not, and it seemed a good idea to move on to a new company in a new place. The Western Edison Light Co. was founded in Chicago in 1882, three years after Edison developed a practical light bulb. In 1887, Western Edison became the Chicago Edison Co. Insull left General Electric and moved to Chicago in 1892, where he became president of Chicago Edison that year. Chicago Edison

1632-596: The market. At the same time, a regulated monopoly could keep costs down by eliminating duplication of infrastructure by competing companies, while prices could be kept to reasonable rates by regulators. He used economies of scale to overcome market barriers by cheaply producing electricity with large steam turbines, such as the installations in the 1929 State Line Generating Plant in Hammond, Indiana. This made it easier to put electricity into homes. As part of his drive to efficiency, Insull practiced vertical integration . Coal

1680-710: The open market and stores it at the Hilbig Gas Storage Facility, an underground reservoir near Rockne, Texas . The facility can hold up to 4 billion cubic feet of natural gas. LCRA operates six hydroelectric dams along the Colorado River in Central Texas that provide a source of renewable energy and form six lakes collectively known as the Texas Highland Lakes : In keeping with its state-approved Water Management Plan, LCRA generates electricity from

1728-462: The performance was repeated on Broadway in October 1925, Herman J. Mankiewicz – then the third-string theatre critic for The New York Times – was assigned to review the production. After her opening-night performance in the role of Lady Teazle, drama critic Mankiewicz returned to the press room "full of fury and too many drinks", wrote biographer Richard Meryman : He was outraged by the spectacle of

1776-571: The play For Money in 1892 and in his subsequent productions. Gladys played the role of Maggie Rolan in Brother John (1893); a New York Times reviewer listed her as one of the most popular players, one who "deserved quite all the applause [she] received." Prior to her marriage to Insull, Gladys also appeared on the New York stage in On Probation and Worth a Million . At the height of her fame she

1824-472: The radio stations and the mechanical television station, NBC shut W9XR just as it had done with W9XAP, which came with its purchase of WMAQ (AM) . On May 22, 1899, Samuel Insull married a "tiny, exquisitely beautiful and clever" Broadway ingénue actress whose stage name was (Alis) Gladys Wallis (1875–September 23, 1953). Her real name was Margaret Anna Bird. Gladys Wallis was popular with New York audiences and appeared in W. H. Crane's company first in

1872-596: The reservoirs known as the Highland Lakes. LCRA completed the chain of lakes and dams in 1951. LCRA manages the chain to protect basin residents from the worst effects of Hill Country floods and provide the lower Colorado River basin with a reliable water supply. With the encouragement of congressman, Lyndon B. Johnson , LCRA used the hydroelectric power from its dams in 1936 to launch a public power program that served communities and electric cooperatives in Central and South Texas. For nearly three decades, hydroelectric generation

1920-498: The same. He donated freely to African-American charities in Chicago, asking the wealthy to follow his example. At the time the US entered WWI, Insull was named head of the Illinois Defense Council by President Woodrow Wilson ; his efforts sold over a million dollars of War Bonds. Insull controlled an empire of $ 500 million with only $ 27 million in equity. (Due to the highly leveraged structure of Insull's holdings, he

1968-498: The statewide electric transmission network through more than 5,100 miles of transmission lines and more than 380 substations, which are owned by LCRA Transmission Services Corporation, a nonprofit corporation owned by LCRA. LCRA manages the Highland Lakes and the lower Colorado River, a 600 mi stretch of the Texas Colorado River, as a system to supply water for more than 1 million people as well as businesses, industries,

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2016-565: The ticket taker. He had 30 francs in his pocket at the time and was identified by a hotel laundry bill in his pocket. Insull was receiving an annual pension totaling $ 21,000 from three of his former companies when he died. Insull was buried near his parents on July 23, 1938, in Putney Vale Cemetery , London, the city of his birth. His estate was found to be worth about $ 1,000 and his debts totaled $ 14,000,000, according to his will. Insull's legacies included electricity grid systems and

2064-498: The units and the power they produce.) Lake Fayette is the cooling pond for the project. LCRA uses coal from the Powder River Basin in Wyoming as fuel. The Sim Gideon Power Plant is a three-unit natural gas -fired plant in Bastrop County that provides 608 megawatts . The Lost Pines 1 Power Project (owned and operated by GenTex Power Corporation, an LCRA affiliate) is a natural gas -fired combined-cycle plant adjacent to

2112-668: Was LCRA's primary power source. Growing demand for electricity led LCRA to build natural gas and coal-fired power plants. LCRA added to its generation portfolio with the Sim Gideon Power Plant and original Thomas C. Ferguson Power Plant in the 1960s and 1970s, the Fayette Power Project in the 1970s and 1980s, the Lost Pines 1 Power Project in 2001 and the Winchester Power Project in 2010. In 1995, LCRA became

2160-520: Was extracted from mines his companies developed, transported by the Chicago & Illinois Midland Railway to Havana, Illinois to be transferred to barges, both of which his companies controlled, and taken up the Illinois Waterway to Commonwealth Edison power stations. In the late 1920s, he attempted to build a dam on the Cumberland River just above scenic Cumberland Falls, posing a threat to

2208-508: Was interviewed (rather unsuccessfully) by Frank Norris . At the time of their marriage, Insull was 41 and Gladys was 24. She had been on the stage from childhood. The Insulls lived outside Libertyville, Illinois , in a Mediterranean styled mansion with extensive grounds that later became the Cuneo Museum , in Vernon Hills . They also had an apartment at 1100 North Lake Shore Drive in

2256-408: Was losing money until Insull discovered a way to make it profitable during a Christmas visit to Brighton , England in 1894. To his surprise, he saw that the shops were closed, but every light in them was burning, something that never happened in the US. Finding the head of the town's electric company, he asked him how this could happen and was told the secret to it was not a flat rate bill, but use of

2304-641: Was offered the post of second-vice-president at General Electric, but was unhappy at not being named its president. When the presidency went to another, Insull moved to Chicago as head of the Chicago Edison Company. Another consideration is that he was caught between opposing factions when J. P. Morgan combined the Thomson-Houston Electric Company and Edison General Electric to form the new company in April 1892. Those loyal to Edison accused Insull of selling out, and in fact he did welcome

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