Orange and Rockland Utilities

ABOUT Located in the northwestern suburbs of New York City, our electric and gas service provides energy for more than 300,000 households and businesses in six counties in New York and northern New Jersey. Founded as the Rockland Light Power Co. in Nyack, NY in 1899, we merged with Orange and Rockland Electric Company in 1958 and became Orange and Rockland Utilities, Inc. With our subsidiary, Rockland Electric Company, we became wholly owned by Consolidated Edison, Inc. in 1999. We’re constantly looking toward the future and exploring ways to innovate and take advantage of developing technology. But, more than anything, we’re listening to you and working hard to give you cleaner, more efficient energy choices, and more control over when and how you use your power. Our History Orange and Rockland Utilities, Inc. was born as the Rockland Light and Power Company in Nyack, N.Y. in 1899 when S.R. Bradley organized the company from a number of smaller gas and electric companies. That original approach became the blueprint for the company's growth through the next 100 years. At the same time Rockland Light and Power was organized in Nyack, a smattering of tiny gas companies and electric companies also were organized in the Rockland County villages of Haverstraw, Spring Valley and Suffern. In relatively short order, all of these smaller companies were merged into Rockland Light and Power. In 1912, those mergers caught the interest of the Charles H. Tenney Company of Boston, which promptly purchased the growing concern. Tenney also purchased the Rockland Electric Company of New York, organized in 1893 in Hillburn, and the Rockland Electric Company, organized in 1899 in Closter, N.J. Shortly thereafter, the Tenney Company merged all its New York companies into the Rockland Light and Power Company. The New Jersey property became the Rockland Electric Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Rockland Light and Power. The same growth that took place in Rockland County was underway in Orange County. Several small gas companies and electric companies were springing up and by 1923, many of those companies had been merged into the Orange County Public Service Company, Inc. [Pike County Light Power Company, formerly OR's Pennsylvania subsidiary, was organized as a subsidiary of Orange County Public Service in 1911.] In 1926, Tenney purchased Orange County Public Service and merged it into Rockland Light and Power Company, making it a formidable regional powerhouse. The other prominent regional utility company, Orange and Rockland Electric Company grew in much the same fashion. It merged with the Goshen Light and Power Company, the Warwick Valley Light and Power Company, the Buttermilk Falls Electric Company of Highland Falls and the Tuxedo Electric Company. In 1958, the Rockland Light and Power Company merged with Orange and Rockland Electric Company, took its name and became the modern corporation Orange and Rockland Utilities, Inc. In 1999, Orange and Rockland Utilities, Inc., and its subsidiaries, followed the familiar merger pattern that had brought it much success and became a wholly owned subsidiary of Consolidated Edison, Inc.