section_path: Menlo Park laboratory (1876–1886)/Electric power distribution
section_name: Electric power distribution
paragraph_text: Electric power distribution
  
  After devising a commercially viable electric light bulb on October 21, 1879, Edison developed an electric " utility " to compete with the existing gas light utilities. On December 17, 1880, he founded the Edison Illuminating Company, and during the 1880s, he patented a system for electricity distribution. The company established the first investor-owned electric utility. On September 4, 1882, in Pearl Street, New York City, his 600 kW cogeneration steam-powered generating station, Pearl Street Station 's, electrical power distribution system was switched on, providing 110 volts direct current (DC), initially to 59 customers in lower Manhattan, quickly growing to 508 customers with 10,164 lamps. The power station was decommissioned in 1895.
  
  Eight months earlier in January 1882, to demonstrate feasibility, Edison had switched on the 93 kW first steam-generating power station at Holborn Viaduct in London. This was a smaller 110 V DC supply system, eventually supplying 3,000 street lights and a number of nearby private dwellings, but was shut down in September 1886 as uneconomic, since he was unable to extend the premises.
  
  On January 19, 1883, the first standardized incandescent electric lighting system employing overhead wires began service in Roselle, New Jersey.