East Midlands Electricity

The East Midlands Electricity Board (EMEB) was formed in 1947 as one of the United Kingdom's twelve area electricity boards specified under the Electricity Act 1947. In 1990 it was floated on the stock market as East Midlands Electricity plc, which went through several changes of ownership.

Supply area

The board covered a large area: from Chesterfield in Derbyshire, to Newport Pagnell (near modern-day Milton Keynes), in Buckinghamshire, and from Coventry in the west to Skegness in the east.

Structure

The organisation's headquarters were at

Mapperley Park, Nottingham in the 1960s, then on Coppice Road in Arnold

, a suburb of the city.

The board was responsible for the purchase of electricity from the electricity generator (the Central Electricity Generating Board from 1958) and its distribution and sale of electricity to customers.

The key people on the board were: Chairman A.N. Todd (1964) A. H. Kenyon (1967), Deputy Chairman A. H. Kenyon (1964) P. Sydney (1967), full-time members J. A. MacKerrell (1964, 1967) R. A. York (1967).^[1]

History

The board was required to supply electricity to homes and businesses, as regulated by the Act, and under terms of reference from the

CEGB. In many towns, the board opened showrooms, to provide customer service facilities such as paying bills, as well as demonstrating and supplying the latest electrical goods to customers. The total number of customers supplied by the Board was:^[2]^[3]

EMEB customers 1949–89
Year	1948/9	1960/1	1965/6	1970/1	1975/6	1978/9	1980/1	1985/6	1987/8	1988/9
No. of Customers, 1000s	893	1364	1512	1651	1782	1873	1920	2032	2086	2115

The post-war period was one of fast growth for the electricity industry. The pre-war

electrified in the 1960s, and the East Coast Main Line in the 1980s, the electricity boards were required to supply the lines passing through their territory with electricity direct from the National Grid. The amount of electricity, in GWh, sold by East Midlands Electricity Board was:^[2]^[3]