The First Century of the Lorson Companies

Hello again.

Frank Lorson Sr. was 23 years old in 1908 and working for the president of New York Edison Company. Edison Company was attempting to get customers to buy electricity from its new plants. Up until then most New York buildings that had electricity at all made it with their own generators.

Frank was one of the president’s favorites because of his “fabulous memory for telephone numbers.” We were really impressed with this fact until we found that the phone numbers in NY at the time consisted of 4 digits. And no dialing. Still, he impressed.

The Edison Company found a way to get building owners to close their private power plants and buy electricity from the new system. Edison installed meters on each tenant’s service and a “master meter” that measured all the power in the building. Edison then prepared bills for tenant power – payable to the Owner – at retail rates. The Owner was billed for the total power in building at a wholesale rate.

The profit was too good to be ignored. It wasn’t. And many building owners became the first major utility customers in NYC.

Well it came to pass that the State of New York created a Public Service Commission, whose purpose was to protect the public against overcharges or other improper practices by public utilities, which were primarily railroads at that time.

The PSC however took on the areas of the supply of gas, water and, yes, electricity. And it was in this latter category that a new industry was formed – and called the Submetering of Electricity.
The PSC said that the utility could sell power at wholesale rates to building owners but the owners would have to meter and bill the tenants themselves: not have the utility do that work.
Frank immediately left to start the New York Supply & Inspection Company with a small office at 123 East 59th Street in Manhattan (Phone Plaza 1321)

That company is still in business and was the first of some very interesting developments in the energy field. This included the start up of companies: Lorson Electric Co Inc; New York Maintenance Corp; Utilities Management Corp; World’s Fair Maintenance Corp; and Lorson Energy LLC.

How this all went from electrical consulting to total energy management and the programs for the future of energy will be our continuing story – please stay tuned.