Abstract
By the 1930s there were more than six hundred franchised electricity supply undertakings. The precise number depends on how one defines a franchise area —for some companies owned two adjacent ‘undertakings’ — but the main burden of development fell on the larger and medium-sized municipalities and companies, only two hundred of which accounted for well over 90 per cent of all sales and investment by the industry.1Although the Central Electricity Board had in 1927 taken over responsibility for constructing the major regional transmission networks, it was the undertakings themselves which financed the belated frequency standardisation programme (through a levy imposed by the Commissioners) and they also were responsible for raising the capital for, and building and operating, the new Grid power-stations — though, as we have seen, the CEB repaid them on the agreed scale of interest and depreciation and some of them sought design assistance from consulting engineers. They were also entirely responsible (subject to the supervision of the Electricity Commissioners on some technical and financial matters) for the development of distribution. We have seen that the Weir Committee felt the undertakings might have difficulty raising the capital for power-stations without government guarantee and that they had some doubts about the level of commercial management skills in the industry, but the fact that the municipal and company undertakings had been able to exploit the technical and market opportunities of the late 1920s and 1930s, and make up a good deal of Britain’s backlog in electrical development, suggests that the worst of these difficulties had largely been overcome.
… there is no engineer in this Hall and no Chairman of a Committee or business man who, if he were given the job of planning the electricity supply of this country, would divide it up into its present areas.
Sir John Brooke, Electricity Commissioner, Proceedings of the National Electrical Convention, 1935, p. 39
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Notes on the Text
Calculated from B. R. Mitchell and P. Deane, Abstract of British Historical Statistics (Cambridge, 1962) pp. 415, 422.
Labour Research Department, Electricity — Public or Private? 1944 p. 17.
Quoted in A. H. Swain, The Economic Effects of Monopoly on British Power Stations, (Leicester, 1929) pp. 78–9.
See p. 81 above; Balfour Beatty, Fifty Years (1959).
Labour Research Department, Electricity: Public or Private (1944).
British Electrical and Allied Manufacturers’ Association, Combines and Trusts in the Electrical Industry (1927).
R. Fulford, Five Decades of BET, 1946.
J. K. Galbraith, The New Industrial State (1967).
A. C. Pigou, The Economics of Welfare (4th edition, 1932) p. 385;
H. Finer, Municipal Trading (1941) pp. 31–5;
cf. L. G. Neuberg, ‘Two issues in the Municipal Ownership of Electric Power Distribution Systems’, Bell Journal of Economics, vol. 8, 1977.
see e.g. G. Stigler and C. Friedland, ‘What can regulators regulate? The Case of Electricity’, Journal of Law and Economics (1962)
W. Baumol and A. Klevorick, ‘Input Choices and Rate of Return Regulation: An Overview of the Discussion’, Bell Journal of Economics, vol. 1 (1970);
T. K. McCraw, ‘Regulation in America: A Review Article’, Business History Review, vol. 49 (1975);
W. Letwin, ‘The Past and Future of the American Businessman’, Daedalus, vol. 98 (1969).
E.g. W. Fennell, ‘The Effect of Legislation and Regulations upon Electricity Distribution’, JIEE, vol. 77 (1935) p. 670;
cf. H. Macmillan, The Middle Way, (1938) pp. 237–8.
Cleona Lewis, America’s Stake in International investment, (1938) p. 603.
On American investment in manufacturing, generally, see R. Jones and O. Marriott, Anatomy of a Merger: A History of GEC, AEI and English Electric (1970) chapters 5–7.
T. Jones, Whitehall Diary, vol. 2 (1969) p. 131;
Electricity Commissioners, Engineering and Financial Statistics. On the design of distribution systems generally, see e.g. J. R. Beard and J. Hacking, ‘Transmission and Distribution’, JIEE, vol. 69 (1931);
H. M. Sayers, Economic Principles of Electrical Distribution (1938) chapter 6;
E. O. Taylor, Distribution and Utilisation of Electricity (1945) pp. 739–50;
H. J. Sheppard, The Growth of the British Distribution System, 1965.
R. Appleyard, History of the Institution of Electrical Engineers (1939) p. 245.
(Balfour) Committee on Industry and Trade, Survey of the Metal Industries, (1928) p. 307.
P, V. Hunter and J. T. Hazell, The Development of Power Cables, (1956).
W. Fennell, ‘Rural Distribution Costs’, Electrical Review, 22 November 1935, p. 709;
K. L. May, ‘High Voltage Distribution in Rural Areas’, JIEE, vol. 87 (1940).
J. R. Beard and T. G. N. Haldane, ‘The Design of City Distribution Systems and the Problems of Standardisation’, JIEE, vol. 65 (1927).
S. R. Mellonie and G. L. E. Metz, ‘The Control of City Distribution Systems’, IMEA Journal, October 1936;
J. W. Leach, ‘Standardisation of Distribution in a Densely-Loaded Area’, JIEE, vol. 88 (1941);
J. W. Leach, chairman’s address, supply section, PIEE, vol. 97 part I (1950);
D. B. Irving, ‘The Supply of Electricity in the London Area’, PIEE, vol. 102 part A (1955).
On the legal position, see A. J. Fippard, ‘Purchase of Undertakings’, Electrical Times, 2 December 1943, p. 660.
W. Fennell, ‘The Effect of Legislation and Regulations upon Electricity Distribution’, JIEE, vol. 77 (1935) pp. 665–7;
For an argument to this effect, see P. V. Hunter, inaugural address, JIEE, vol. 74 (1934) p. 4.
See, generally, C. R. Westlake, ‘Electrical Development in Northern Ireland’, JIEE, vol. 77 (1935);
T. E. Christie, ‘Progress in Electrical Development in the Area of Supply of the Electricity Board for Northern Ireland’, JIEE, vol. 90, part I (1943).
J. M. Kennedy and D. M. Noakes, ‘An Analysis of the Costs of Electricity Supply and Distribution in Great Britain’, JIEE, vol. 73 (1933);
J. M. Kennedy, speech reported in Electrician, 20 October 1933, p. 469;
F. W. Shilstone, speech reported in Electrical Times, 24 January 1935, p. 104;
J. R. Beard, ‘Rationalisation of the Distribution of Electrical Energy’, Transactions of the World Power Conference, vol. 8, Washington, 1936.
‘G. H.’, The Socialisation of the Electric Supply Industry, (published by Victor Gollancz for the New Fabian Research Bureau, 1934).
T. G. N. Haldane, ‘Some Recollections and Reflections’, unpublished typescript, Electricity Council archives; and cf. ‘Civis’, Electricity and Nationalisation —A Plea for Commonsense, (1935).
E.g. Political and Economic Planning, Report on the Supply of Electricity in Great Britain, (1936) p. 128;
T. Stevens, ‘Statistical Analysis of Distribution Efficiency’, World Power, February 1937;
J. A. Sumner, ‘Modern Factors affecting Electricity Costs and Charges’, JIEE, vol. 81 (1937);
V. V. Ramandham, ‘The Structure of the British Electricity Supply Industry’, unpublished PhD thesis, London, 1951.
T. Stevens, ‘Electricity Distribution, with special reference to Small Supplies and Small Consumers’, World Power, vol. 44 (1939) pp. 86–90.
J. W. Leach, Standardisation of Distribution in a Densely-Loaded Area’, JIEE, vol. 88 (1941);
J. W. Leach, supply section, chairman’s address, PIEE, vol. 97 part II (1950);
D. B. Irving, ‘The Supply of Electricity in the London Area’, PIEE, vol. 102, part A (1955);
and cf. M. W. Humphrey-Davies, ‘The Electric Supply System in Berlin’, JIEE, vol. 80 (1937).
M. Romain, The Story of the County Co (1948).
H. C. Lamb, ‘Organisation, Financing and Operation of Publicly-Owned Electric Utilities’, Transactions of the Third World Power Conference, vol. 6 (Washington, 1936).
See, generally, A. Marwick, “Middle Opinion in the Thirties: Planning, Progress and Political Agreement’, English Historical Review, vol. 19 (1964).
Political and Economic Planning, Report on the Supply of Electricity in Great Britain (December 1936).
J. R. Beard, presidential address, JIEE, vol. 188 part I (1941) p. 31.
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Hannah, L. (1979). Distribution: the Drift into Stalemate. In: Electricity before Nationalisation. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-03443-7_7
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