In 1890, a social activist group petitioned Cleveland City Council to start a municipal electric lighting plant with wires running underground to serve the residents of Cleveland, Ohio. More than 15 years later – in 1906 – Mayor Tom L. Johnson addressed Cleveland City Council and championed the activists’ recommendation.
Mayor Johnson had a vision for the publicly-owned electric company to light the streets and give power and electricity to the homes and businesses of every resident and business in the entire City of Cleveland.
In 1906, the City of Cleveland annexed the Village of South Brooklyn – along with their power station – and the lighting plant began producing its own electric power for the City. At that point, Cleveland Municipal Light Plant generally referred to as Muny Light, positioned itself to achieve Tom Johnson’s goal to give City residents the choice of reliable power at an affordable cost.
Fast forward to 1979 when a “Save Muny Light” campaign was launched by Mayor Dennis Kucinich to fight the acquisition of the utility, by an investor-owned electric utility. Mayor Kucinich led the defeat of the takeover, and in 1980 Mayor George Voinovich continued the battle. Mayor Voinovich’s Administration approved capital improvements for Muny Light that resulted in a stronger, more reliable and more competitive utility. In 1983 Muny Light and Power officially became Cleveland Public Power (CPP).
Today, CPP boasts the status of being Ohio’s largest municipal electric power provider and ranks 35 out of 2000 publicly-owned electric utilities in the country. CPP currently delivers reliable, affordable power to approximately 70,000 residential and commercial customers in and around Cleveland, Ohio.