Southern Electric

Southern Electric plc was a public limited energy company in the United Kingdom between 1990 and 1998, when it merged with Scottish Hydro-Electric plc to form Scottish and Southern Energy plc (now SSE plc). The company had its origins in the southern England region of the British nationalised electricity industry. Created in 1948 as the Southern Electricity Board, in 1990 it was privatised by being floated on the London Stock Exchange.

History

The company originated as the Southern Electricity Board, created in 1948 as part of the nationalisation of the electricity industry by the Electricity Act 1947. The board's assets passed in 1990 to Southern Electric plc, one of the fourteen public electricity suppliers, and that company was privatised in the same year. In 1998 the company merged with Scottish Hydro-Electric plc and became part of Scottish and Southern Energy.[1]

SSE used the "Southern Electric" name and logo for a time as a brand name for retail distribution of gas and electricity in the south of England, before replacing it with SSE branding.

Southern Electricity Board

The key people on the board were: Chairman Henry Nimmo (1948–54),[3] Chairman R.R.B. Brown (1964, 1967), Deputy Chairman W.B. Poulter (1964, 1967), full-time member A. W. Bunch (1967).[4]

The number of customers supplied by the board was:[5][6]

The amount of electricity, in GWh, sold by the Southern Electricity Board over its operational life was:[5][6] { "version": 2, "width": 600, "height": 200, "data": [ { "name": "table", "values": [ { "x": 1949, "y": 2284 }, { "x": 1956, "y": 4531 }, { "x": 1961, "y": 7998 }, { "x": 1966, "y": 12274 }, { "x": 1967, "y": 12729 }, { "x": 1968, "y": 13758 }, { "x": 1969, "y": 14546 }, { "x": 1970, "y": 15086 }, { "x": 1971, "y": 15851 }, { "x": 1972, "y": 17744 }, { "x": 1976, "y": 18202 }, { "x": 1978, "y": 18839 }, { "x": 1979, "y": 19792 }, { "x": 1980, "y": 19722 }, { "x": 1981, "y": 19446 }, { "x": 1982, "y": 21073 }, { "x": 1987, "y": 22856 }, { "x": 1988, "y": 23420 }, { "x": 1989, "y": 23942 } ] } ], "scales": [ { "name": "x", "type": "ordinal", "range": "width", "zero": false, "domain": { "data": "table", "field": "x" } }, { "name": "y", "type": "linear", "range": "height", "nice": true, "domain": { "data": "table", "field": "y" } } ], "axes": [ { "type": "x", "scale": "x" }, { "type": "y", "scale": "y" } ], "marks": [ { "type": "rect", "from": { "data": "table" }, "properties": { "enter": { "x": { "scale": "x", "field": "x" }, "y": { "scale": "y", "field": "y" }, "y2": { "scale": "y", "value": 0 }, "fill": { "value": "steelblue" }, "width": { "scale": "x", "band": "true", "offset": -1 } } } } ] }

Existing electricity suppliers taken over at nationalisation

The Electricity (Allocation of Undertakings to Area Boards) Order 1948 (SI 1948/484) transferred the electricity business of the following local authorities and private companies to the new board effective 31 March 1948.[7]

Local authorities

Aldershot Corporation
Basingstoke Corporation
Bournemouth Corporation
Brentford and Chiswick Corporation
Calne Corporation
Chichester Corporation
Dorchester Corporation
Ealing Corporation
Fareham Urban District Council
Heston Isleworth Corporation

type	Public
foundation	1990
fate	Acquired
defunct	1998
successor	Scottish and Southern Energy
location	Reading, England
products	Gas and electricity

History