History
Organized in 1891 and began generation in late 1894, La Electricista was the first electric company that provides electricity to Manila during the late Spanish era. La Electricista had built a central power plant on Calle San Sebastian (now R. Hidalgo). On January 17, 1895, its streetlights were turned on for the first time. By 1903, it had about 3,000 electric light customers.
On October 20, 1902, the Second Philippine Commission began accepting bids to operate Manila's electric tramway, and by extension, providing electricity to the city and its suburbs. Detroit entrepreneur Charles M. Swift won the bidding by default as he was the sole bidder and on March 24, 1903, was granted the original basic franchise of Meralco.
In 1904, Meralco acquired both the Compañía de los Tranvías de Filipinas, a firm that operated public transportation and ran Manila's horse-drawn and steam-operated tramways, and added La Electricista. Construction on the electric tramway began that same year. In addition to acquiring La Electricista's Calle San Sebastian power plant, Meralco built its own steam generating plant on Isla Provisora which powered the streetcar system and eventually also the electric service. By 1906, Meralco's yearly power output capacity was around eight million kWh.
Read more about this topic: Meralco
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