The water supply was also expanded. The Ames plant became part of the Nunn’s Telluride Power Company which would later become part of Western Colorado Power Company, formed as a wholly owned subsidiary of Utah Power and Light. Public Service Company acquired the plant with other Colorado Ute properties in 1992. A 1905 vintage power house is still in service for Public Service Company, a subsidiary of Xcel Energy, with two Pelton wheels powering a single 1904 General Electric generator, with output of 2,400 volts, and 1,082 amperes at a speed of 225 R.P.M. Significance in the history of the electrical energy supply The Ames power station was built at the end of a decade that saw the rapid expansion in the use of alternating current as a power transmission format. During this period Westinghouse was in stiff competition with other AC companies as well with Thomas Edison's direct current based Edison Electric Company. A propaganda campaign/"war of currents" had even broken out between Westinghouse and Edison. Westinghouse Electric looked on the Ames project as a great way to demonstrate the capability of the AC system they had been developing since they installed their first AC transformer based lighting systems in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, in March 1886. The 1891 Ames Hydroelectric Generating Plant is one of the oldest power plants to produce and transmit alternating current for an industrial purposes. It predated by one month the Lauffen Dam to Frankfurt power-transmission system at International Electrotechnical Exhibition that powered lights and some electric motors. As a hydro-electric plant in the US it was predated by the Oregon-based Willamette Falls Electric Company, the first AC hydro-electric generation facility, in 1889, which included a 14-mile-long (23-kilometre) transmission line to Portland, used to power arc lighting. The oldest hydroelectric power plant supplying a commercial transmission system for alternating current was the power plant Thorenberg near Lucerne in Switzerland. The plant started operation in May 1886 and fed 1,800 volts to a nearly transmission line. It was transformed to 100 volts to illuminate some hotels and restaurants in the downtown area of the city. The original Ames/Gold King plant is also notable for the small starter motor used, an early use of the induction motor, a new efficient commutator-less design that would later become commonplace. The patent for the motor had been licensed by Westinghouse from Nikola Tesla two years earlier and was being developed