The committee's supplementary report on supplying electricity to workshops, stores and houses was initially greeted with lack of enthusiasm from town residents. 

The committee also considered the town owning its own generating plant. "There are many reasons why in our opinion it is better for a town to own and operate an electric plant," Watson summarized, "but the chief reason is that a town can supply itself with light from its own plant cheaper than it can buy light from any company." Watson was the founder of a group Nationalists, who sought to promote public ownership and operation of all industries.

In 1891 a bill was approved allowing municipalities to establish their own electric light systems—the birth of public power in America.

With Watson as chairman of a committee constructing the electric light system, operations began with two arc light machines capable of powering 50 street lamps each.

Residents of Braintree quickly realized the advantages of electricity once the streetlights were in operation.

The growing importance of electricity made a separate Municipal Lighting Board necessary.

The following year, the Electric Light Department boasted 908 customers, and was more than self-sustaining financially.

In the next few years electric demand increased as consumers learned to enjoy the convenience of such innovations as electric water heaters and stoves. At the same time, sound financial management allowed BELD to proudly become the only plant in the state without debt. And when shortages and high costs made coal impractical to burn, the plant added two new oil-fired boilers.

The plant building was once again improved and enlarged, and the following year a new office building was constructed on Allen Street. 

It was estimated that the plant was worth well over $1 million—a substantial amount in the Depression era. When Ernest Fulton was appointed Manager that same year, the commissioners restated their objectives: "It is the aim of the Commission to furnish current and service at the lowest possible rate and to continue the policy of giving Braintree uninterrupted and economical service."

The rapidly increasing price of fuel caused some citizens to question the value of a municipal electric system. But voters could not ignore the obvious advantages of a town-owned utility. They found the Electric Light Department had added some $13 million to the town's assets at no cost to the taxpayer. In addition, it had been a source of income. 

Instead of selling the Department, townspeople supported the installation of the largest, most efficient unit possible in order to meet the community's power needs for the next decade.

Potter II station, the largest project ever undertaken by the town, went on-line on April 1. Two high-capacity interties with the New England network provided the town with the ability to transmit all of its own generation over these lines, and to receive, if necessary, all of its power requirements from outside facilities.

A conversion project at the Potter II generating station was also completed, allowing it to use either oil or natural gas as its fuel source depending on availability and price. This improvement to the unit was aimed at saving customers money while reducing the amount of plant emissions.

The mid '90s brought some significant changes for BELD, as the utility staff outgrew its original facility and realized the need for additional space. The original Allen Street generating plant was demolished, and construction of a new $1 million operations center was completed just ½-mile to the north off Quincy Avenue.

While those projects remained in the testing phase, the utility launched BELD.net—the town's first high-speed broadband Internet service.

BELD became the nation's first municipal utility to recover methane from a landfill and use it to power a fuel cell. And in an event reminiscent of Potter's continued power production during the Blackout of 1965, BELD staff orchestrated a successful black start of the plant in preparation for Y2K.

 High-definition television (HDTV) and Video on Demand (VOD) were launched. In October of that same year, a new general manager, William G. Bottiggi, was brought on board.

The aging SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) system was replaced with one that provided better communication and control of BELD substations. The Plain Street Substation was also renovated and BELD co-sponsored a pilot program with Climate Energy.

BELD broke ground starting construction on the Thomas A. Watson Generating Station. Assets such as this continue to support BELD’s efforts to protect our community against the continual rise in electricity prices.

The age of advanced metering is upon us. After years of careful planning, watching the evolution of the technology, meeting with vendors and evaluating systems, BELD began an advanced metering project in 2010. The system will automatically read meters and provide more value-added features—including outage notification, voltage quality, tamper alarms, and remote disconnect ability.

BELD Broadband launched a variety of new services that customers had been waiting for—wireless home networking, computer security, and watchTVeverywhere.

In addition, the department unveiled a new web portal. Customer|Connect lets customers view their electrical usage 

We began replacing all 4,100 street lights in town with highly efficient light-emitting diode (LED) fixtures. These LED units consume less than 50% of the energy of the old high-pressure sodium lights.

A new electric vehicle incentive program was launched this year as well, encouraging residents to lease or purchase zero-emission vehicles. 

In BELDs press release, BELD General Manager Bill Bottiggi said:

“We are proud of our 20-year history as a local Internet Service Provider and sincerely thankful for our customers’ loyalty. Our top priority has always been our customers, and we continue to think of their best interests while adjusting to market conditions. After evaluating our options, we are confident the best decision is to connect our residential and business customers with Comcast’s best-in-class network, products, services and customer experience.”