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County of London Electric Supply Company

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County of London Electric Supply Company Limited
Company typePrivate company
IndustryElectricity supply
PredecessorCounty of London Electric Lighting Company Limited, County of London and Brush Provincial Electric Lighting Company Limited
FoundedJune 30, 1891; 135 years ago (1891-06-30) in London, United Kingdom
DefunctMarch 1948 (1948-03)
FateNationalisation of the UK electricity supply sector
Headquarters
London
,
United Kingdom
Area served
South west London, parts of south Essex and Kent, metropolitan boroughs including Bermondsey, Camberwell, Finsbury, Holborn, Lambeth, Southwark, Wandsworth, Barking, Beddington and Wallington, Dagenham, Mitcham, Reigate, Sutton and Cheam, Wimbledon; urban districts such as Banstead and Billericay; rural districts including Epping and Godstone
Key people
Lord Rathmore (Chairman), Joseph Bevan Braithwaite (Chairman), Sir Harry Renwick (Chairman and Managing Director), Sir Bernard E. Greenwell (Chairman), Sir Robert Renwick (Chairman); Board of Directors in 1922 included Lord Gainford, Sir Frederick Hall, J. A. Hosker, R. Percy Sellon
ProductsElectricity generation and distribution
OwnerShareholders

The County of London Electric Supply Company Limited (abbreviated as C.L.E.S.Co) was a British enterprise founded in 1891 with the purpose of producing and distributing electricity to areas in south west London as well as two parishes adjacent to the City of London. It operated power generation facilities located at Wandsworth and City Road. Starting in 1925, the company partnered with three other London-based firms to consolidate electricity generation at the highly thermal efficiency Barking Power Station. The company ceased operations and was formally dissolved in March 1948 following the nationalisation of the UK’s electricity supply sector.

Background

Originally incorporated on 30 June 1891 under the name County of London Electric Lighting Company Limited, the firm aimed to provide electrical services throughout north, south, and south west London. Between 1892 and 1898, it secured provisional orders authorizing electricity supply to various districts including St Luke and Clerkenwell, Wandsworth and neighboring parishes, St Olave Southwark, Camberwell, Holborn, Mile End Old Town, and Limehouse.

In 1893, the company changed its name to County of London and Brush Provincial Electric Lighting Company Limited. By 1903, it had adopted its final title: County of London Electric Supply Company Limited.

Management

From 1896 until its dissolution in 1948, the company was led by five different chairmen:

The board of directors in 1922 comprised:<ref name=":7">

The company’s registered office was located at Moorgate Court, Moorgate Place, London EC2.[1]

Power stations

The enterprise initially established two generating stations situated at City Road and Wandsworth.

City Road power station

Situated on the City Road basin alongside the Regent's Canal (coordinates: 51°31'48"N 0°05'50"W), construction commenced in 1895 but faced delays due to labor strikes. The station was completed in early 1897 with electricity supply beginning in September that year. Initially, it was equipped to power approximately 80,000 lamps rated at 8 candlepower.[2]

By the year 1900, the plant operated with a setup comprising twelve Babcock & Wilcox boilers feeding:

  • Six units of 200 kW two-phase, 50 Hz generators manufactured by Electric Construction Company
  • Five compound engines rated at 150 kW each from Brush coupled with Mordey single-phase generators
  • Two direct current generators of 550 kW each from British Thomson-Houston driven by E P Allis engines

In 1923, the equipment at City Road included:<ref name=":2">

  • Boilers capable of producing steam at a rate of 168,100 lb/h (21.2 kg/s)
  • Generators consisting of:
    • Two turbo-alternators with capacities of 1,500 kW each (AC)
    • One turbo-alternator rated at 2,500 kW (AC)
    • One turbo-alternator with a capacity of 5,500 kW (AC)
    • One reciprocating engine generator producing 525 kW (DC)
    • Two reciprocating engine units each generating 600 kW (DC)

The total installed generation capacity amounted to 10,500 kW for alternating current and 1,725 kW for direct current.

Electricity was supplied to customers at voltages of:

  • Two-phase alternating current at 50 Hz with a voltage level of 104 Volts
  • Direct current at a voltage of 530 Volts

City Road power station was not selected as a 'designated station' under the Central Electricity Board’s scheme introduced in 1926 and was subsequently shut down in 1929.[3]

Wandsworth power station

The Wandsworth power station utilized coal-fired boilers alongside Brush Universal generators directly linked to Mordey dynamos, providing electricity for 40,000 lamps each rated at 8 candlepower. The company extended its cable network to several districts such as St Luke, Clerkenwell, Wandsworth, Putney, Streatham, Clapham, Holborn, and Camberwell. Power distribution occurred at 6,000 Volts through step-up and step-down transformers located at the Wandsworth site and various remote substations.

By the year 1923, the facility housed coal-fired boilers capable of producing up to 322,400 lb/h (40.62 kg/s) of steam that supplied:

  • One 1,000 kW reciprocating engine,
  • Three steam turbo-alternators rated at 1,500 kW each,
  • Two steam turbo-alternators of 5,000 kW each,
  • Two steam turbo-alternators rated at 6,000 kW each,

amounting to a total alternating current generation capacity of 27,500 kW. The electricity offered to customers included both two-phase and three-phase AC at voltages of 205 and 404 Volts (50 Hz), as well as direct current at 410 Volts. The station remained in operation until 1964.

Electricity supply

To accommodate increasing electricity consumption, the company expanded its operations significantly. The table below presents key operational statistics from 1897 through 1946, detailing plant capacity, peak load, electricity sold (in MWh), customer count, connected load (kW), and load factor (%).

1934 1935 1936 412500 319951 1034605 268769 828462 40.7 1937 1946 (Wandsworth) 1946 (Barking)
County of London Electric Supply Company operating data, 1897–1946
Year Plant capacity (kW) Peak load (kW) Electricity sold (MWh) Customer numbers Connected load (kW) Load factor (%)
1897 (City Road) 333
1897 (Wandsworth) 117
1904 9,250 5,342 5,755 5,222 12.3
1907 8,700 13,970 30,035
1908 10,000 13,611 13,645
1909 9,850 14,786
1912 20,300 12,800 22,512 20,246 44,763 20.0
1913 25,743 22,315
1914 28,012 24,212
1915 30,562 25,913
1916 35,029 26,994
1917 37,595 27,998
1918 40,326 28,400
1919 34,000 25,700 42,488 31,390 82,224 18.9
1921 38,000 27,900 49,553 43,000 87,902 27.3
1922 38,000 29,800 51,220 91,550 26.1
1923 39,725 37,650 65,679 54,000 119,241 25.7
1931 509,829
1932 604,599
1933

412,901 250,100 693,374 163,982 492,269 38.3

776,094

885,403

1914953

19160

21228

418200

2077998

The accompanying charts illustrate the increase in electricity sales measured in gigawatt-hours (GWh) over the periods from 1897 to 1923 and from 1931 to 1946.

Electricity use

Initially focused on lighting applications only, electricity consumption soon broadened to include power uses. The following table outlines changes in electricity usage by sector (in MWh) between 1919 and 1936.

Electricity consumption by end use (MWh), 1919–1936
Usage category (MWh) Year
1919 1921 1922 1923 1936
Public lighting 99 276 196 112 4,960
Domestic supply 38,243 14,026 13,177 15,748 200,338
Power and heat generation 29,670 31,562 34,750 194,561
Traction 4,146 0 0 0 66,912
Bulk supply 5,580 6,285 7 ,633 567 ,837
Total 42 ,488 49 ,553 51 ,220 58 ,242 1 ,034 ,606


Financial statistics

Funds for the company's establishment and ongoing operations were secured through the issuance of shares. Initial outlays encompassed land purchases, building construction, machinery installation, electrical systems, legal expenses, and outfitting the stations. The capital expenditures allocated to the City Road and Wandsworth power stations during 1896–97 were as follows:

Capital expenditure, 1896–97
Year 1896 1897
City Road £155,596 £214,257
Wandsworth £117,126 £196,543

Profits for both the company and its shareholders were generated from income derived from electricity sales. The following financial data from 1897 through 1936 demonstrate this progression:

Sales revenue, working cost and profit, 1897–1923
Year Revenue from electricity sales Working cost of generation Surplus of revenue over expenditure
1897 (City Road) £7,141 £4,176 £2,965
1897 (Wandsworth) £3,328 £2,047 £1,281
1912 £216,665 £87,954 £117,145
1919 £543,284 £301,603 £235,174
1922 £723,226 £402,817 £340,428
1923 £835,348 £358,122 £502,937
1936 £3,602,230 £2,421,204 £1,181,026

Throughout its operation, shareholders consistently received dividends. The dividend yields as a proportion of capital raised between 1895 and 1919 are presented below alongside the average dividends paid by London-based electricity companies:

County of London Company shareholder dividends 1895-1919
Year 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907
Dividend % 0 0.59 1.11 1.46 3.10 4.48 4.77 4.83 4.75 4.69 4.98 5.00 5.00
Average dividend % 4.01 4.66 5.54 5.10 5.15 4.60 5.29 5.55 5.51 5.79 5.65 5.14
Year 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919
Dividend % max=6.00
-Average dividend % max=5.76

Expansion

The company significantly broadened its operations throughout East London as well as parts of south Essex and Kent.

By 1913, the County of London Company was supplying power to metropolitan boroughs such as Bermondsey, Camberwell, Finsbury, Holborn, Lambeth, Southwark, and Wandsworth; urban districts including Merton and Morden, Romford, and Tilbury; along with rural districts like Croydon and Orsett.

Substantial capital investment in new plant and equipment was necessary to sustain this expansion:

Capital expenditure, 1907–1919.
Year 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912
Capital expenditure £50,926 £84,215 £64,667 £71,135 £62,897 £95,723
By 1937 the company had extended its supply network to additional metropolitan boroughs including Barking; Beddington and Wallington; Dagenham; Mitcham; Reigate; Sutton and Cheam; and Wimbledon; urban districts such as Banstead and Billericay; plus rural districts including Epping and Godstone. Among its principal customers were the South Metropolitan Electric Tramways and Lighting Company (which received 2,021.0 MWh in 1919) and the South London Electric Supply Corporation (which was supplied with 5,340.4 MWh in 1923). Between 1918 and 1936 the company acquired fourteen other electricity providers. Through its subsidiary Kent Power Company it coordinated development efforts across southeast England. In 1920 permission was sought to construct Creekmouth power station in Barking with a proposed capacity reaching up to 600 MW. To fund this initiative share issues were made in 1921 and 1922 consisting of 500,000 six percent cumulative preference shares alongside 500,000 ordinary shares. Barking A station became operational in 1925. The County of London Company collaborated with three other entities—the City of London Electric Lighting Company; South London Electric Supply Corporation Limited; and South Metropolitan Electric Light and Power Company Limited—to promote the London Electricity (No. 1) Act of 1925. They established a joint committee to manage power station operations while maintaining their independence as district suppliers linked by interconnected cables. This legislation aimed to balance shareholder returns (capped at seven percent dividends) with consumer interests by restricting retained profits; any surplus earnings were redirected to consumers through reduced pricing. Additionally, the company commissioned Barking B power station in 1933.

Government policy

The Central Electricity Board (CEB) was created under the Electricity (Supply) Act 1926 (16 & 17 Geo. 5. c. 51) to select highly efficient power stations and oversee the development of the national grid between 1927 and 1933, linking various regional electricity generators.

City Road power station was excluded from this selection and subsequently shut down in 1929.

In 1948, the British electricity supply sector underwent nationalisation through the Electricity Act 1947 (10 & 11 Geo. 6. c. 54). This led to the dissolution of the County of London Electric Supply Company, with ownership of Wandsworth and Barking power stations transferred to the British Electricity Authority and later to its successors, the Central Electricity Authority and the Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB). The responsibility for electricity distribution and retail was assigned to the London Electricity Board (LEB).

Wandsworth power station continued operations until 1964, while Barking A and Barking B stations remained in service until 1969 and 1976, respectively.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named :7
  2. ↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named :0
  3. ↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named :11
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