South West Electricity Board Area
The area was first defined by the Ministry of Fuel and Power in a White Paper published in January 1947, a month before debate began on the Electricity Bill.[1] Fourteen area boards were to be established for electricity distribution or retailing. Generation and transmission were to be the responsibility of the British Electricity Authority.
Each area board was defined to provide a diversity of load between urban and rural areas and, where possible, avoided cutting across distribution networks. The South Western Area, as defined at this time, had been part of the South West England and South Wales Grid Scheme Area since 1929. Other parts of this very large region were transferred to the Southern, Midlands and South Wales areas.
In detail the South Western Area included the whole of the counties of Cornwall and Devon and a small part of Dorset where Lyme Regis and Bridport were closely linked with the area. The eastern part of Somerset which included Frome and Yeovil became part of the Southern Area since the companies involved were already integrated with Wessex Electricity. Bristol and Bath Corporation electricity department’s boundaries formed the northern limits of the new South Western Area. The boundary lines drawn in 1947 continue to be entrenched in the distribution area franchises of the present day.
Generally the generating and transmission divisions of the national organisation coincided with those of the area boards. The South Western Area was, however, an exception. Partly to include major transmission lines which connected South Wales and England, the British Electricity Authority and its successors added part of Gloucestershire north of Bristol to its South Western Division. One effect of this discordance of boundaries can result in anomalies in the interpretation of statistics and other data.
[1] Ministry of Fuel and Power, Electricity Supply Areas, Cmd 7007. (London: HMSO, 1947).
