Pennsylvania Water and Power Company.

The Pennsylvania Water and Power Company was incorporated in Pennsylvania in January 1910. The company was the outgrowth of a race to develop the water power potential of the lower Susquehanna River.

The Susquehanna Canal and Power Company was incorporated on April 17, 1902, for the threefold purpose of opening the navigation of the river from Columbia, Pa., to Port Deposit, Md., using the 200-foot drop of the river to generate hydroelectric power and building an electric railway along the river for the towage of boats. Opposition arose from a rival group that was planning a hydroelectric dam at McCall's Ferry, Pa., under the name of the Susquehanna Water and Power Company. Under the so-called "Harrisburg Areement" of 1903, the McCall's Ferry group obtained the rights to build its dam, but the Susquehanna Canal and Power Company balked when it learned that they planned to build another dam at Peach Bottom, Md.

The Susquehanna Water and Power Company was reorganized as the McCall Ferry Power Company on April 14, 1905, and began the construction of a dam and power plant at McCall's Ferry (present day Holtwood). The dam was to be 2,530 feet long with a generating capacity of 135,000 h.p. and would supply electricity to Baltimore and Philadelphia. The dam was about 80 percent completed when the company was thrown into receivership by the Panic of 1907. The property was sold to J. E. Aldred on December 7, 1909, and reorganized as the Pennsylvania Water and Power Company on January 13, 1910. Backed by New York and Boston bankers, Aldred also bought out the Susquehanna Canal and Power Company in 1910, ending the rivalry and converting it to a subsidiary of PW&P.

The backers of the project were determined to construct hydroelectric facilities that would rival those at Niagara Falls. The Holtwood dam as completed generated 104,000-kw of electricity, supplemented by a 30,000-kw steam plant built by the Holtwood Power Company in 1925. The second phase of their program saw the construction of a dam and power station at Safe Harbor, eight miles upriver from Holtwood. By the mid-1930s, the Safe Harfor plant consisted of seven generating units producing 230,000-kw of electricity. The dams served as the model for some of the large dams built in the Western States.

Once completed, the PW&P system was integrated with other large power systems that supplied the Chesapeake-Eastern Pennsylvania area. In June 1955 the Pennsylvania Water & Power Company was merged into the Pennsylvania Power & Light Company.