The Eastern Electricity Board was formed in 1948 as part of the nationalisation of the electricity industry by the Electricity Act 1947. The Board was responsible for the purchase of electricity from the electricity generator and its distribution and sale of electricity to customers. The key people on the Board were: Chairman H.D.B. Wood, Deputy Chairman C.C. Hill, Full time member P. Sydney J.S. Mills. The total number of customers supplied by the Eastern Electricity Board was:
Year
1948/9
1960/1
1965/6
1970/1
1975/6
1978/9
1980/1
1985/6
1987/8
1988/9
No. of Customers, 1000s
1180
1835
2041
2244
2430
2561
2623
2782
2864
2905
The amount of electricity, in GWh, sold by the Eastern Electricity Board over its operational life was:
Post privatisation
In 1990 the assets of the board passed to Eastern Electricity plc, one of the regional electricity companies formed by the Electricity Act 1989. The company was privatised later in the year in a stock market flotation, one of many UK Government public share offers which saw formerly state-owned utilities sold off, including British Telecom, British Gas, and the UK's regional water companies. It subsequently became known as Eastern Group, with offices across the east of England including Norwich and Ipswich. In 1995 Hanson plc gained control of Eastern Group. Hanson ownership lasted until 1997 when The Energy Group was demerged from Hanson plc and floated on the London Stock Exchange. Then in 1998 the Energy Group was bought by TXU Europe. Following the acquisition Texas Utilities was renamed TXU, with The Energy Group becoming TXU Energi, part of TXU Europe. In October 2002 TXU announced it was pulling out of Europe due mainly to the collapse of its UK operations. Powergen purchased TXU's UK businesses for £1.37bn later that year. The company's distribution rights were sold on to EDF Energy, owners of London Electricity, SWEB Energy and SEEBOARD, three other former regional electricity companies. The Eastern, London and South-Eastern distribution networks were later sold on to UK Power Networks. In 2006, artist Rory Macbeth painted Sir Thomas More’s entire novel Utopia onto an old Eastern Electricity building on Westwick Street in Norwich.
