Abstract
For many years, starting in the Jate forties, a number of different factors combined to make self-generation of electrical energy cost-prohibitive except for a few very large users of electrical service. The nation's utilities were virtually a true monopoly. An annual growth rate of electrical energy consumption of 8-9% per year, the continuing availability of increasingly larger and larger, more efficient generating units, coupled with fuel prices of less than 25c per million BTU'S, perpetuated this monopoly up into the mid-seventies.
Hamilton, D. E. (1990). The Industry/Utility Interface - An Overview. Energy Systems Laboratory. Available electronically from
https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /148982.