Seeboard, formerly South Eastern Electricity Board (SEEB), was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

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 Hove ( ) is a seaside resort in East Sussex, England. Alongside Brighton, it is one of the two main parts of the city of Brighton and Hove. Originally a fishing village surrounded by open farmland, it grew rapidly in the 19th century in respon ...

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, and converted it to a headquarters. The building was refurbished and substantially extended between 1979 and 1981.

Customer data

The total number of customers supplied by the board was: The amount of electricity, in GWh, sold by the South Eastern Electricity Board over its operational life 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 Portslade is a western suburb of the city of Brighton and Hove in the ceremonial county of East Sussex, England. Portslade Village, the original settlement a mile inland to the north, was built up in the 16th century. The arrival of the railwa ...

. 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 The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or as the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent home counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in England. The Undergro ...

's high-voltage power distribution network, under the terms of the UK government's

private finance initiative The private finance initiative (PFI) was a United Kingdom government procurement policy aimed at creating "public–private partnerships" (PPPs) where private firms are contracted to complete and manage public projects. Initially launched in 1992 ...

. 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 Électricité de France SA (; ), commonly known as EDF, is a French multinational corporation, multinational electric utility company owned by the government of France. Headquartered in Paris, with €139.7 billion in sales in 2023, EDF ope ...

, before being acquired by

Cheung Kong Holdings Cheung Kong (Holdings) Limited, is a multinational conglomerate, based in Hong Kong. It was one of Hong Kong's leading multi-national conglomerates. The company merged with its subsidiary Hutchison Whampoa on 3 June 2015, as part of a ma ...

and renamed

UK Power Networks UK Power Networks (UKPN) is a distribution network operator for electricity covering South East England, the East of England and London. It manages three licensed distribution networks (Eastern Power Networks, South Eastern Power Networks and Lo ...

Bibliography

References

External links

EDF Energy website

BalfourBeatty press release 1998-08-13/
{{Area Electricity Board Companies based in Brighton and Hove Électricité de France Former nationalised industries of the United Kingdom Electric power companies of the United Kingdom Utilities of England 1947 establishments in England