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 Scottish Hydro plc was a public electricity supplier formed on 1 August 1989 after a change of name from North of Scotland Electricity plc on that date. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index ...

to form Scottish and Southern Energy plc (now

SSE plc SSE plc (formerly Scottish and Southern Energy plc) is a multinational energy company headquartered in Perth, Scotland. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange, and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. SSE operates in the United Kingdom ...

). 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 Privatization (also privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation when ...

by being floated on the

London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Pau ...

History

The company originated as the Southern Electricity Board, created in 1948 as part of the

nationalisation Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to pri ...

of the electricity industry by the

Electricity Act 1947 The Electricity Act 1947 (10 & 11 Geo. 6. c. 54.) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which nationalised, or bought into state control, the electricity supply industry in Great Britain. It established a central authority called t ...

. The board's assets passed in 1990 to Southern Electric plc, one of the fourteen

public electricity supplier Public electricity suppliers (PES) were the fourteen electricity companies created in Great Britain when the electricity market in the United Kingdom was privatised following the Electricity Act 1989. The Utilities Act 2000 subsequently split the ...

s, and that company was privatised in the same year. In 1998 the company merged with

and became part of

Scottish and Southern Energy SSE plc (formerly Scottish and Southern Energy plc) is a multinational energy company headquartered in Perth, Scotland Perth (Scottish English, locally: ; gd, Peairt ) is a city in central Scotland, on the banks of the River Tay. It is th ...

. 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. Following the purchase of SSE's retail business by

OVO Energy OVO Energy is a major energy supplier based in Bristol, England. It was founded by Stephen Fitzpatrick and began trading energy in September 2009, buying and selling electricity and gas to supply domestic properties throughout the UK. By Jun ...

in 2020, the Southern Electric brand is a trading name of OVO Electricity Limited.

Southern Electricity Board

The key people on the board were: Chairman Henry Nimmo (1948–54), Chairman R.R.B. Brown (1964, 1967), Deputy Chairman W.B. Poulter (1964, 1967), full-time member A. W. Bunch (1967). The number of customers supplied by the board was: The amount of electricity, in GWh, sold by the Southern Electricity Board over its operational life was:

Operations

The Southern Electric name continues to be used by SSE's subsidiary Southern Electric Power Distribution plc, the

distribution network operator A distribution network operator (DNO), also known as a distribution system operator (DSO), is the operator of the electric power distribution system which delivers electricity to most end users. Each country may have many local distribution networ ...

in the south of England. In April 2013 the UK electricity market regulator

OFGEM , type = Non-ministerial government department , nativename = , nativename_a = , nativename_r = , logo = Ofgem logo.svg , logo_width = 124px , logo_caption = , seal = , seal_width = , seal_caption = , picture = , picture_widt ...

fined Southern Electric £10.5 million for breaches of conduct in relation to mis-selling, from the top of the business down.Ofgem fines SSE £10.5m for mis-selling
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References

{{Area Electricity Board Electric power companies of the United Kingdom Utilities of the United Kingdom Former nationalised industries of the United Kingdom Companies based in Berkshire Non-renewable resource companies established in 1990 Companies disestablished in 1998 1990 establishments in England 1998 disestablishments in England

History

Southern Electricity Board

Operations

See also

References