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Events on Monday 4 September 1882 1
1882Pearl Street Station begins operationEdison opens the first commercial electric power plantThomas Edison's Pearl Street Station in lower Manhattan began supplying electricity to paying customers on 4 September 1882, the first commercial central power plant in the United States. It lit roughly 400 lamps for 85 customers using Edison's direct-current system. The station demonstrated that electric lighting could be delivered as a metered utility service.