Puget Sound Energy - History

History

Through mergers and acquisitions, dozens of small utility companies gradually evolved into today’s Puget Sound Energy. The oldest of these – the Seattle Gas Light Company – introduced Washington Territory to manufactured-gas lighting on New Year’s Eve, 1873. A dozen years later, another PSE ancestor – the Seattle Electric Light Company – gave the region its first electric service from a central power plant. Yet another of PSE’s predecessor companies, the Snoqualmie Falls Power Company, built the region’s first large hydroelectric plant—the first ever to have completely underground generators, at Snoqualmie Falls, in 1898.

PSE was formed in 1997 when two of its largest ancestral companies – Puget Sound Power & Light Company and Washington Energy Company – merged.

In 2009 Puget Sound Energy was sold to foreign investors, Macquarie Group, in a leveraged private equity buyout. Puget Holdings, the US title of this group of long-term infrastructure investors, merged with Puget Energy, PSE’s parent company to form the current business structure. Puget Energy is a holding company incorporated in the State of Washington. All of its operations are conducted through its utility subsidiary, PSE, which is regulated by Washington State’s Utilities and Transportation Commission.