Northern States Power Company (Minnesota)

Northern States Power Company (Minnesota) (NSP) was a Minneapolis-based, publicly held energy company. (After about 2000 it was known as Xcel Energy.) It generated, transmitted, and distributed electrical power and natural gas to customers in Minnesota and in North and South Dakota. A related company, Northern States Power Company (Wisconsin), served customers in Wisconsin and in Upper Peninsula Michigan. Northern States Power Company had its beginnings as the Washington County Light and Power Company (Stillwater, Minn.), organized in June 1909 by entrepreneur Henry Marison Byllesby (ca.1859-1924). Byllesby was at one time a draftsman for inventor Thomas Alva Edison. The company's name was changed later that year to Consumers Power Company, and in 1916 to Northern States Power Company. Byllesby's strategy was to purchase, rehabilitate, and build public utility properties. The company grew steadily through a series of mergers and acquisitions (including 42 companies in just 7 years during the 1920s) under Byllesby's leadership. Some of these firms date back to the 1850s.

The Minneapolis Mill Company and the St. Anthony Falls Water Power Company, which figure largely in this collection, were formed by the various owners of water power rights at the Falls of St. Anthony in order to equitably apportion the river water available to the mills and other users at the falls. Both were chartered in 1856 and, while separate corporate entities, they were for most of their existence jointly operated by the same management. These firms leased water for power to the various users in units known as "mill powers." A mill power was the quantity of water required to develop about 75 theoretical horsepower. Mill powers were leased to the users at annual rentals ranging from $100 to $1500 per mill power.

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