{{Short description|British electricity supplier (1947–1993)}} {{Distinguish|Seaboard (disambiguation){{!}}Seaboard}} '''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),<ref>{{Cite news|title=Obituary CG Morley New (p. 12)|date=11 December 1957|work=The Times}}</ref> 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.<ref name="EncH&Pv13p29">{{Harvnb|Middleton|2003|loc=Vol. 13, p. 29.}}</ref>
=== 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.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1948/484/pdfs/uksi_19480484_en.pdf |title=Electricity (Allocation of Undertakings to Area Boards) Order 1948 |website=legislation.gov.uk}}</ref>
==== Local authorities ==== {{Div col|colwidth=25em}} * 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 * London and Home Counties Joint Electricity Authority * 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 {{Div col end}}
==== Private companies ==== {{Div col|colwidth=25em}} * 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 {{Div col end}}
==Customer data== The total number of customers supplied by the board was:<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=The Electricity Council|title=Handbook of Electricity Supply Statistics 1979|publisher=The Elaectricity Council|year=1980|isbn=0851880762|location=London|pages=58, 63}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite book|last=The Electricity Council|title=Handbook of Electricity Supply Statistics 1989|publisher=The Electricity Council|year=1990|isbn=085188122X|location=London|pages=51 56}}</ref> {| class="wikitable" |+ Customers supplied South Eastern Electricity Board !Year !1948/9 !1960/1 !1965/6 !1970/1 !1975/6 !1978/9 !1980/1 !1985/6 !1987/8 !1988/9 |- ! Number of customers, 1000s |1482 |1787 |1848 |1849 |1844 |1872 |1787 |1849 |1887 |1909 |}
The amount of electricity, in GWh, sold by the South Eastern Electricity Board over its operational life was:<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /><graph>{ "version": 2, "width": 600, "height": 200, "data": [ { "name": "table", "values": [ { "x": 1949, "y": 1999 }, { "x": 1956, "y": 3723 }, { "x": 1961, "y": 5910 }, { "x": 1966, "y": 8675 }, { "x": 1967, "y": 8891 }, { "x": 1968, "y": 9583 }, { "x": 1969, "y": 10249 }, { "x": 1970, "y": 10865 }, { "x": 1971, "y": 11380 }, { "x": 1972, "y": 12586 }, { "x": 1976, "y": 13175 }, { "x": 1978, "y": 13442 }, { "x": 1979, "y": 14118 }, { "x": 1980, "y": 13986 }, { "x": 1981, "y": 13170 }, { "x": 1982, "y": 14730 }, { "x": 1987, "y": 15888 }, { "x": 1988, "y": 16123 }, { "x": 1989, "y": 16552 } ] } ], "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 } } } } ] }</graph>
== Privatisation == On 31 March 1990 the area electricity boards were changed to independent regional electricity companies (REC), and Seeboard plc was formed.<ref name="EncH&Pv13p30">{{Harvnb|Middleton|2003|loc=Vol. 13, p. 30.}}</ref> 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.<ref name="EncH&Pv13p30"/>
'''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.<ref>{{cite web|title=UK Power Networks - About Us|url=http://www.ukpowernetworks.co.uk/internet/en/about-us/our-history/|website=UK Power Networks|accessdate=15 September 2014|archive-date=22 November 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151122044619/http://www.ukpowernetworks.co.uk/internet/en/about-us/our-history/|url-status=dead}}</ref>
==Bibliography== {{refbegin}} *{{cite book|last=Middleton|first=Judy|title=The Encyclopaedia of Hove & Portslade|year=2003|publisher=Brighton & Hove Libraries|location=Brighton}} {{refend}}
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== * [http://www.edfenergy.com/edf-energy/showPage.do?name=homeenergy.til EDF Energy website] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20070928004559/http://www.fuelmix.co.uk/edf_energy_fuel_mix_2006.htm EDF Energy's Fuel Mix for 2006] * [http://www.balfourbeatty.com/bby/media/press/prarchive/1998-08-13/ BalfourBeatty press release 1998-08-13/] {{Electricity generation in South East England}} {{Area Electricity Board}}
Category:Companies based in Brighton and Hove Category:Électricité de France Category:Former nationalised industries of the United Kingdom Category:Electric power companies of the United Kingdom Category:Utilities of England Category:1947 establishments in England