NOTTINGHAM CORPORATION ELECTRICITY
UNDERTAKING

Post 1918 Period Second Phase
With the setting up of the North Wilford Power Station, the early post-1918 war period can be considered at an end. The second phase up to the outbreak of war in 1939 was marked by several distinct trends. In the first place the use of electricity in the home was to be greatly expanded, in Nottingham and elsewhere. The Nottingham Undertaking helped this forward in a number of ways. Secondly the area of supply was extended both within and outside of the City. Third, with the growth of the motorcar traffic there was a need for a better road system with better night lighting and electricity was easily able to outpace gas as an illuminant. Lastly, and contributing to all of the other trends was the setting up of the National Grid with its now familiar pylons in rural areas and Nottingham and North Wilford became involved in this.

The war time reports and subsequent discussions finally resulted in the passing of the Electricity (Supply) Acts of 1919 and 1922, which tried to rationalise production of electricity by creating larger units through joint electricity authorities. This did not go far enough and after a report of a Committee under the chairmanship of Lord Weir, another Act was passed in 1926. This created the Central Electricity Board and the Country was divided up into areas, in which the main generating stations were to be linked. Selected stations, the larger and more modern ones, were used to generate larger quantities than were needed by their own undertakings and the balance ‘exported’ to other parts of the country as required by the Board. There were special financial arrangements to facilitate this.

Nottingham was included in a scheme for Central England; North Wilford became a selected station and main transmission lines were erected to form a roughly circular route from Hams Hall, Birmingham through Burton, Derby, Spondon, Nottingham, Loughborough, Leicester, Coventry and back to Birmingham. All this could not be done quickly but Nottingham approved the scheme in 1928. This involved installing a further 50,000 KW of 3 phase 50 cycle generating plant with boilers, by 1935/36 and a similar extension by 1940/41. A report in 1934 was approved by the Council for spending a further £470,000 on extensions to North Wilford and the new plant came into operation in November 1935. In 1932/33, just under 1 million units had been generated. The following year this was increased to 137 million, of which 25 million was exported to the C.E.B. In the next year only 14 million units were exported but in 1935/36 there was an increase to 44 million, followed by further increases each year up to 1939 when 188 millions were exported, out of 396 millions generated.

In 1928 the Undertaking started what was known as the Assisted Wiring Scheme for small houses. Under this scheme, the Undertaking carried out the installation work necessary to put electricity into smaller houses, which did not have it and met the cost initially. The cost was recouped over a period of years by adding an extra amount to the unit price charged for consumption of electricity. The object was of course to encourage householders who could not afford to pay outright for the installation to use electricity. The first houses to be converted to electricity under the scheme were 40 in Bobbers Mill Road and 17 in Rolleston Drive.

Another way of making it easier for consumers to pay for electricity was the installation of pre-payment or ‘penny-in–the-slot’ meters. 17,315 such meters were fitted in 1930/31, bringing the total to 52,395.

For domestic consumers who preferred to pay by a quarterly account, a domestic tariff was introduced in 1931 under which the consumer did not pay a uniform price for every unit used. Instead there was a two-part tariff, consisting of a fixed charge relating to the rateable value of the house (15% on the first £60 RV and 10% on the remainder, with a minimum fixed charge of £2 per quarter), plus a charge of ½d per unit consumed. Thus, the more units used, provided the amount was sufficient to be cheaper than paying a uniform price of 5d per unit, the cheaper became the actual price per unit. At this time also, meter rents were abolished and a minimum charge of 5/- per quarter was introduced.

The Electricity (Supply) Act of 1926 gave electricity undertakings powers to sell and hire various items of electrical equipment. In 1929 Nottingham embarked on a scheme of hiring out electrical cookers and in May 1934 this was extended to immersion water heaters. At 31st March 1939 there were 13,551 cookers (64,602 KW) and 8,976 water-heaters (23,048 KW) on hire. The Undertaking also sold electric fires and other apparatus either for cash or on hire-purchase. All this commercial activity involved the Undertaking having to recruit staff with experience in retail distribution and setting up a showroom. This was situated in Exchange Buildings on Smithy Row and was opened in 1931.

Industry in Britain had not converted to electricity to the same extent as, for instance Germany and the United States. In Nottingham in 1925 there were 2,988 DC motors with a HP of 15,405 and 136 AC motors of 2,136 HP, a combined total of only 17,541 HP, not very much for a work force of about 75,000. By 1939 the number of motors had increased as follows:

-	5,862 DC	29,660 HP
-	5,682 DC	44,378 HP
Total:	11,544	74,038 HP

Although this is a considerable increase compared with 14 years earlier, part of it was due to the extension of the area of supply.

Some idea of the growth of the undertaking in its first 44 years can be seen in the following statistics of the position in 1939:-

Mains laid - City area	DC	214 miles
Mains laid - City area	AC	208 miles
Mains laid - City area	High Tension	151 miles
Mains laid - City area	Total	573 miles
-	-	-
Mains laid - Added area	AC	226 miles
Mains laid - Added area	High Tension	64 miles
Mains laid - Added area	Total	290 miles
-	-	-
Mains laid - All areas	Total	863 miles

Summary of Consumers

-	No.of K.W.	Units Consumed	Consumers Connected 1938/39
Domestic Premises-Domestic Tariff	14,426	113,338	32,078,471
Domestic Premises-Flat Rate	88,107	139,907	23,248,901
Public Lighting	8	804	2,328,223
Trolley Buses	1	8,000	11,160,365
Farms/Horticulture	43	206	57,382
Shops	4,107	16,433	12,208,899
Offices	1,879	6,642	3,727,228
Public Buildings	1,151	11,680	5,688,636
Hotels	48	680	687,496
Other Premises	570	739	1,035,855
Factories/Workshops	2,185	67,856	69,143,775
-	-	-	-
Total	112,525	366,285	161,365,231

Geoffrey Oldfield
Summer 2006

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