Yorkshire Electricity

Yorkshire Electricity
Industry Electricity
Fate Acquired
Successor American Electric Power
Founded 1948
Defunct 1997
Headquarters Leeds, England, United Kingdom

Yorkshire Electricity was an electricity distribution utility in England, serving much of Yorkshire and parts of Derbyshire, Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire.

History

Formed as the Yorkshire Electricity Board in 1948 as part of the nationalisation of the electricity industry by the Electricity Act 1947. The establishment of the company involved the amalgamation of 50 private and local authority power companies. The Yorkshire Electricity Board took over Scarcroft Lodge in north Leeds as its headquarters.[1] It was privatised in 1990 as the Yorkshire Electricity Group plc.

In June 1993, Homepower stores were opened across the Yorkshire region.[2] Homepower was the retail arm of the company which was a joint venture with East Midlands Electricity.[3] At its peak, Homepower employed 900 people and had 130 stores.[4] This part of the company was sold off in 1996.

In 1997 the company was acquired by American Electric Power (AEP) and Public Service Company of Colorado (part of Xcel Energy) in a deal worth £1.5 billion.[5] In 2001 Innogy plc bought 94.75% of the company in a deal worth £1.8 billion.[6] The company was subsequently split into two entities, one a supply company, the other a distribution utility. The distribution company (Yorkshire Electricity Distribution Limited) was disposed of to CE Electric UK in 2001 in exchange for the supply business of Northern Electric. Northern Powergrid is now the licensed Distribution Network Operator for the Yorkshire region. In 2002, the company divested itself of its Leeds Headquarters as most staff and processes had been transferred to the Midlands HQ of npower by that time.[1]

Innogy was itself taken over by RWE. The supply company now trades as npower.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Williamson, Howard (2 May 2002). "YE pull plug on Scarcroft". Yorkshire Evening Post. Retrieved 9 February 2017.
  2. ↑ "Electrical stores run out of juice". marketingweek.com. Marketing Week. 17 February 1995. Retrieved 9 February 2017.
  3. ↑ Hinchcliffe, David (11 June 1996). "Homepower (Closure) (Hansard, 11 June 1996)". hansard.millbanksystems.com. Retrieved 9 February 2017.
  4. ↑ Hotten, Russel (2 July 1994). "Yorkshire Electricity to cut 1,000 jobs: Final redundancy figure could". The Independent. Retrieved 9 February 2017.
  5. ↑ Sabbagh, Dan (28 February 2001). "Innogy buys Yorkshire Electricity". The Telegraph. Retrieved 9 February 2017.
  6. ↑ "NPower firm buys Yorkshire Power". BBC News. 27 February 2001. Retrieved 9 February 2017.
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