Wikipedia / Seeboard
Wikipedia / Seeboard
Seeboard, formerly South Eastern Electricity Board (SEEB), was a British electricity company. The electrical power industry in the United Kingdom was nationalised by the Electricity Act 1947, when over 600 electric power companies were merged into 12 area boards, one of which was the South Eastern Electricity Board. At its closure it served nearly 2 million residential customers.
History
The key people on the board were: Charles George Morley New (d.1957) (1948–55), Chairman Harold V. Pugh (1964), E. Sinnott (1967), Deputy Chairman E. Sinnott (1964), A. G. Milne (1967), full-time member E. Peel (1964, 1967). The board acquired the then Princes Hotel) on the seafront in Hove, East Sussex, and converted it to a headquarters. The building was refurbished and substantially extended between 1979 and 1981.
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.
Local authorities
Ashford Urban District Council
Bexhill Corporation
Brighton Corporation
Canterbury Corporation
Croydon Corporation
Dover Corporation
Eastbourne Corporation
East Grinstead Urban District Council
Epsom and Ewell Corporation
Faversham Corporation
Gillingham Corporation Gravesend Corporation
Guildford Corporation
Hastings Corporation
Horsham Urban District Council
Hove Corporation
Kingston-upon-Thames Corporation
Maidstone Corporation
Margate, Broadstairs and District Electricity Board
Reigate Corporation
Tonbridge Urban District Council
Tunbridge Wells Corporation
Walton and Weybridge Urban District Council
Worthing Corporation
Private companies
Burgess Hill Electricity
Central Sussex Electricity
Folkestone Electricity Supply Company
Guildford Gas Light Coke Company
Herne Bay District Electricity Supply Company
Horley District Electricity Supply Company
Kent Electric Power Company
Lewes District Electric Supply Company
Peacehaven Electric Light Power Company
Ramsgate District Electric Supply Company
Richmond (Surrey) Electric Light Power Company
Ringmer and District Electricity Company
Seaford and Newhaven Electricity
Sevenoaks and District Electricity Company
Sheerness and District Electric Supply Company
Shoreham and District Electric Lighting Power Company
South-East Kent Electric Power Company
Steyning Electricity
Sussex Electricity Supply Company
Uckfield Gas and Electricity Company
Weald Electricity Supply Company
West Kent Electric Company
Whitstable Electric Company
Woking Electric Supply Company
Customer data
The total number of customers supplied by the board was:
Privatisation
On 31 March 1990 the area electricity boards were changed to independent regional electricity companies (REC), and Seeboard plc was formed. On 11 December 1990 the RECs were privatised. The Hove headquarters was closed in 1994, but some jobs were transferred to a nearby Seeboard office in Portslade.
Seeboard Powerlink, a company owned by Seeboard, BICC and ABB, was awarded (on 13 August 1998) a 30-year contract to operate, maintain, finance and renew London Underground's high-voltage power distribution network, under the terms of the UK government's private finance initiative. Seeboard Powerlink became responsible for distribution of high-voltage electricity supplies to London Underground's substations and more than 400 kilometres (250 miles) of track. The contract included significant capital construction and installation works on the LUL power system valued at approximately £100 million.
In 2002 Seeboard joined 24seven Utility Services under the ownership of the LE Group, which then rebranded in 2003 to become EDF Energy Networks, the UK branch of Électricité de France, before being acquired by Cheung Kong Holdings and renamed UK Power Networks.
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