On the coast of the Bay of Fundy, in the Musquash Estuary, sits the remnants of New Brunswick's first foray into publicly owned power. The Musquash power station and connected dams were the first generating stations built by N.B.
Power, the province's public electricity utility. It was operational from 1922 until 2009, but historian James Upham says the remnants of the station offer a prime view of the province's power history. "We're looking at a really ambitious, very successful, early undertaking of early power generation in the province of New Brunswick that also just happens to have a beautiful setting," said Upham.
Early power Several early utilities produced electricity in the province, including the Fredericton Electric Light Company, the Moncton Gas, Light and Water Company, and the Eastern Electric Company in Saint John. But all of these companies were relatively small, serving limited areas and leaving the vast majority of the province still in the dark. Before N.
B. Power, several smaller independent companies sold electricity to a small number of New Brunswickers. (The Daily Mail/New Brunswick Historical Newspapers Project) "There weren't a lot of private people that had access to electricity," said Upham.
"There was very little in the way of any kind of grid to move it around the province." This led to discussions in the province about what the future of electricity should look like, whether there should just be private businesses selling power where they felt th.