British electricity undertaking
The City of London Electric Lighting Company Limited (CLELCo) was a British electricity undertaking. It was formed in July 1891 to generate and supply electricity to the City of London and part of north Southwark. It owned and operated Bankside power station on the south bank of the river Thames. The company provided and stimulated demand for electricity, increased its generating capacity, and competed and co-operated with other electricity undertakings in London. The company was dissolved on 1 April 1948 when the British electricity industry was nationalised.
History.
In 1889 the Corporation of London invited tenders from electrical plant manufacturers to provide electric lighting throughout the 1.25 square miles of City of London. The Laing, Wharton and Down Construction Syndicate undertook to supply the eastern district of the City and the Anglo-American Brush Electrical Engineering Company to supply the central and western districts. Provisional orders were obtained under the Electric Lighting Act 1888 (51 &amp; 52 Vict. c. 12); these enabled any company or person to supply electricity and to install a system of supply. The Laing syndicate built a power station in the City at Wool Quay between the Custom House and the Tower of London and the Brush company a power station at Meredith Wharf on Bankside on the south bank of the Thames. The Wool Quay site had little space for expansion and the generating station was closed in 1893, the equipment was sold or transferred to Bankside. The two contractors obtained consent from the Board of Trade to transfer their contracts to a new company formed on 5 February 1891 called the City of London (Pioneer) Electric Lighting Company with a capital of £50,000. Supplies of direct current electricity for street lamps in Queen Victoria Street commenced from Bankside power station on 25 June 1891.
Formation.
The City of London Electric Lighting Company Limited was formed on 11 July 1891 with a capital of £800,000. The assets of the City of London (Pioneer) Electric Lighting Company were transferred to the new company for £95,000, the company also purchased the provisional orders of the Laing syndicate and the Brush company.
Legal powers.
The company's legal powers were the City of London Orders 1890 and 1891; the Southwark Order 1891; the City of London Electric Lighting Act 1893 (56 &amp; 57 Vict. c. lxxxv); the City of London Electric Lighting Act 1900 (63 &amp; 64 Vict. c. lxxxviii); the London Electric Supply Act 1908 (8 Edw. 7. c. clxvii); and the London Electricity (No. 1) Act 1925 (15 &amp; 16 Geo. 5. c. lxii).
Premises.
The company's head office from 1896-1923 was at 1 &amp; 2 Great Winchester Street, London EC2 and at Falcon House, Aldersgate Street, London EC1 from 1924-48. The electricity generation station was at 64 Bankside, London SE1. In the late 1930s CLELCo had a showroom at 33 Ludgate Hill London EC4.
Operation.
Growth of demand.
The first alternating current supply for private consumers commenced on 14 December 1891 from Bankside power station. Between December 1891 and July 1892, 271 miles of electricity mains had been laid in the city, causing considerable disruption. By the mid-1890s demand for electric lighting in the City was increasing by about 1,000 additional electric lamps per week. The sub-station at St Benet Fink, for example, supplied the Bank of England, the Royal Exchange and the banks in Lombard Street. In October 1894 there were 13,000 lamps connected to this sub-station, by October 1896 there were 22,500, an increase of about 5,000 per year or doubling every three years. In 1896 the company had 5,303 customers as well as public lighting including thirteen miles of streets within the City. By the end of 1899 the company were supplying 430,000 incandescent lamps plus 540 arc lamps for street lighting.
In addition the company rented out a range of electrical appliances including kettles, saucepans, irons and hotplates. An electric oven could be hired for between 7 and 12 shillings per quarter (£1=20 shillings), normally retailing at £7 to £14. In 1894 the company charged 4d. per unit (1 kWh) for electricity for cooking, half of the standard change of 8d. per unit (£1=240d.). The company had a scheme of free installation of wiring and fittings for a moderate rental charge.
Sales of electricity more than doubled in the nine years between 1904 (14 GWh) and 1913 (29 GWh). The average price the company charged from electricity fell from 7.56 d./kWh in 1895, to 4.09 d./kWh in 1900, 2.75 d./kWh in 1905, and 2.27 d./kWh in 1915. Electricity demand remained constant during the World War I but increased again over the following two decades. In 1937 the CLELCo's street lighting supply was the cheapest in London at 0.633 d./kWh and its private electricity supply (1.735 d./kWh) was the third lowest in the capital; the private supply of the South Metropolitan Company was 1.294 d./kWh and the London Power Company charged 1.676 d./kWh.
World War II had a significant impact on the company. On the night of 29/30 December 1940 Bankside lost some of its ancillary plant from 'Blitz' bombing, but the main generating plant was undamaged. By the morning the destruction of buildings in the City was such that 40 per cent of the company's connected load had disappeared. It was estimated that the premises of 2,500 consumers had been destroyed and the cost to the CLELCo in lost revenue was estimated at about £100,000 per annum. The years 1942-44 were the only ones when the company did not pay its shareholders a seven per cent dividend.
Capital expenditure.
To meet the requirement of increased demand, capital expenditure on new plant and equipment was required, as shown on the table below.
Revenue.
The CLELCo's net revenue (revenue from supply of electricity less operating costs) over the period 1892-1916 was as follows: ;graph ;{
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 "y": 153387
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 "y": 390596
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 "y": 369562
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Shareholder dividends.
Dividends to shareholders were paid throughout the operational life of the company. Dividends as a percentage of the total capital raised in a given year were as shown, together with the average dividends paid by the London company electricity undertakings.
Competition and co-operation.
Until 1899 the company had a monopoly of electricity supply to the City of London. A Board of Trade inquiry into competition in 1899 resulted in a provisional order being granted to the Charing Cross and Strand Electricity Supply Corporation to supply electricity in competition with the CLELCo. The City of London Electric Lighting Act 1900 authorised the construction of a generating station at Bow.
The Electricity (Supply) Act 1919 permitted undertakings to exchange electricity supplies, to work together or