Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Historical Geography of Electricity in Eastern North Carolina

University Of North Carolina At Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill NC

Investigators

Abstract

Introduction This doctoral dissertation improvement grant is jointly supported by the Science, Technology, and Society program and the Geography and Spatial Sciences program. In eastern North Carolina, some towns charge electricity rates nearly double those in nearby towns. These differences result from the patchwork of electricity providers that serve the region. These electric utilities can be grouped into three ownership types: investor owned, municipally owned, and cooperatively owned. The proposed research seeks to understand how and why this patchwork of electric utilities and varying prices emerged. It is guided by two interlocking hypotheses. First, electric utilities were compelled to overcome a series of obstacles, including difficulty obtaining capital investment for infrastructure; a necessity to increase revenues from electricity sales; and ongoing attempts to stave off the devaluation of fixed assets. Second, the developing electric utilities both shaped, and were shaped by, local and regional social, economic and political geographies. As electric utilities began operating in eastern North Carolina, varying alliances and configurations worked to undermine the interests of African Americans and the working classes. Intellectual merit This research employs geographic approaches to research electric utilities, including archival research, GIS mapping, and interviews with key informants, to consider how the ownership and financing models of the different electric utilities developed in relation to the ideologies of the Progressive Era and Jim Crow segregation. It also considers electricity's development in the American South, a region previously unexamined by historians of electricity. Broader Impacts This project provides insights into how electricity infrastructures are developed, and how they influence the development of the cities they power. This will inform current debates over the relations between the industry, the state, and infrastructure, and in eastern North Carolina will inform ongoing debates over electricity prices. Project outputs include a geodatabase of historic power plant information, and an interactive online mapping tool that allows users to explore the development of electricity in several North Carolina towns.