The production and distribution of electric energy in Puerto Rico was made by private companies at the beginning. The first private lighting system was installed by José Ramón Figueroa in Villalba, in 1893. That same year, public lighting was inaugurated in San Juan, because of a royal visit. The Electric Light Anonymous Company installed 600 incandescent lamp and 8 lamp posts. After that installation, electric energy company began to have some problems with the gas company, (until that moment, the gas company maintaned a monopoly). Some legal actions were taken, and some light were destroyed in the streets as part of a movement against the establishment in certain places of electric energy central. Between 1894 and 1898 the electric company moved to other cities, and continued providing a best service. The last Gas Company finally disappeared in 1903.

Mayagüez , Utuado, Ponce, and Arecibo, also had their lighting systems installed on 1896, 1897, 1898, and 1903, respectively. In Utuado was the first time that three small generator were connected to a hydraulic turbine.

Beginning the XX century, foreign investor saw Puerto Rico as a fertile land to establish electric companies, and they created two corporations: San Juan Light and Transit Company (1904), and San Juan and Río Piedras Railway Company (1901). The most important was the San Juan Light and Transit Company, it provided with electricity to a big part of the city of San Juan, Puerta de Tierra and Santurce. In 1906, Porto Rico Power and Light Company bought all the small companies and absorbed the control of the electricity. Caguas, Comerío, Río Piedras, Bayamón, Cataño and Carolina acquired electricity service. This merge between all the companies consolidated the electric Energy Company as a private company.

In 1908 was the South Coast Irrigation Service was created by law, in order to provide with water and maximize all the farming potential of the region. Its construction ended on 1914 and consisted of 3 artificial lakes in the central and southwest part of the island in the towns of Patillas, Guayama (Carite), and Juana Díaz (Guayabal).

I know you are thinking why do I need to know about a creation of an irrigation system. Why is this included in the history of the development of the electric energy utility in PR? Well the truth is that we owe this small agency the development of government electric power service. When the artificial lakes project began, there was no electric service in the area. As the first part of the project (Carite) was situated in a high part of a mountain, it was conveniently used to produce electric energy. The South Coast Irrigation Service offered the energy they were not using to the Porto Rico Railway, Light and Power Company, in order that they would sell that energy. The PRRLPC did not accept the offer. They said that it was not a very crowded region and it would not have been remunerable.

In 1915, the PR government began the construction of their own electric facilities, now, they were thinking in the transmission, distribution and "selling" of the electricity derived from the irrigation processes. The construction of Carite was ended that same year, 560kW. This was the first hydroelectric property of the government of PR. 85% of the energy of Carite was distributed in the irrigating system, energy for the pumps and other industrial uses. The remaining energy was for public lighting and domestic use of the nearest towns. With this event, the production and distribution of electric power began with the purpose of social wealth instead of profit.

The demand for more energy motivated the installation of other two generators, Carite #2 (1922). The success of the hydroelectric energy got to the "Asamblea Legislativa" and they began to invest money in the study of installation of more hydroelectric. These processes result in the creation of "Utilización de Fuente Fluviales de Puerto Rico". The first director and founder was the engineer Antonio Luchetti. Go to Executives Director for the list of director the AEE had since then.