Industry Electricity Defunct 2002 Founded 1947 Ceased operations 2002 | Fate Acquired Headquarters Worcester, United Kingdom Successor E.ON | |
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East midlands electricity 01
The Midlands Electricity Board was the public sector utility company responsible for electricity generation and electrical infrastructure maintenance in the Midlands of England prior to 1990. As Midlands Electricity plc it was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.
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History
The Midlands Electricity Board was formed in 1947, under the Electricity Act of that year. The counterpart of the East Midlands board, it served southern, and western parts of Warwickshire, as well as the counties of Worcestershire, Herefordshire, Shropshire, and Staffordshire, as well as most of Gloucestershire, the West Midlands conurbation and northern Oxfordshire.
As with the EMEB, it kept a network of showrooms across its area, to allow customers to pay bills, and order many types of electrical goods. The MEB, Southern Electric and Eastern Electricity merged their showrooms, forming the Powerhouse store chain in the early 90's.
In 1990, as part of the privatisation of the UK electricity industry, the board became Midlands Electricity plc. The new business was split up, and sold several times: the supply business to npower in 1999, the distribution business to GPU Power, and Aquila, Inc., under whose ownership it was renamed Aquila Networks, before finally being purchased by Powergen in 2004, becoming Central Networks, part of E.ON.