The Lancashire Electric Power Company
The Lancashire Electric Power Company was one of the largest private electricity companies in the UK. It was established in 1900 and generated and supplied electricity to 1,200 squares miles of Lancashire from 1905 until its abolition under nationalisation in 1948.
Electric power companies
Legal background
The Lancashire Electric Power Company was established under the provisions of the Lancashire Electric Power Act 1900.This was one of several Acts passed in 1900 and 1901 that defined the legal powers of electricity supply companies. They were enabled to generate and supply, in perpetuity, electricity to authorised undertakings and for industrial and manufacturing purposes over a wide area. A standard clause safeguarded the privileges of existing company and local authority electricity undertakings. Despite this safeguarding the Lancashire Electric Power Bill had met with considerable opposition in Parliament during 1900. The Lord Mayor of Manchester and many local authorities had taken steps to oppose the Second Reading of the Bill. They saw a powerful electricity company as a threat to their municipal privileges. Nevertheless, the Act was passed and the power company was established.Others companies and their empowering Acts in 1900 and 1901 included Newcastle-upon-Tyne Electric Supply Company Act; North Metropolitan Electric Power Supply Act; South Wales Electrical Power Distribution Company Act; Cleveland and Durham County Electric Power Act; Yorkshire Electric Power Act; and the Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire Electric Power Act.
The Lancashire Company sought further supply powers in 1906, these were granted under the terms of the Lancashire Electric Power Act 1906. The company now supplied electricity to all of Lancashire south of the Ribble, except for the Boroughs of Manchester, Salford, Liverpool, Bootle, Southport and central Bolton, an area of about 1,200 square miles.
Electricity supply
The Company's original generating station was the Radcliffe Power Station which was opened by the Earl of Derby on 9 October 1905. This had two 1,500 kW turbo-alternator sets manufactured by British Thomson-Houston, generated at 10 kV.The first customer was the Acme Spinning Company in Pendlebury which with 75,000 spindles was the first cotton spinning mill in Lancashire to be designed for powering by electricity.
The plant at Radcliffe was soon duplicated with six boilers feeding four 1,500 kW sets. The equipment was so simple that the whole power station could be operated by a shift of six or seven men. It reached full capacity in December 1922 with ten sets giving an electricity generating capacity of 42,375 kW.
Interconnections
During the First World War discussions were held on cooperation between undertakings. The Lancashire Electric Power Company, Manchester Corporation and Salford Corporation linked up their five power stations and their distribution networks forming an interconnected system from Manchester to Wigan..In 1923 the maximum electrical load on the system was 34,000 MW and there were 47,000 connections on the system. Radcliffe power station generated 90,378 GWh. The power sold was used as follows:
| Electricity Use | Electricity sold, GWh | Percent |
| Lighting and domestic | 1,431.0 | 1.88 |
| Public lighting | 56.7 | 0.07 |
| Traction | 137.5 | 0.18 |
| Power | 51,768.0 | 67.98 |
| Bulk supply to other undertakings | 22,760.0 | 29.89 |
| Total | 76,155.0 | 100.00 |
The area of supply Lancashire Electric Power Company was divided into 11 districts: Barton-upon-Irwell, Bury Road, Kearsley, Little Hulton, Little Lever, Ramsbottom, Tottington, Tyldesley, Westhoughton, Whitefield and Worsley.
In 1923 the revenue from the sales of current was £300,620 giving surplus of revenue over expenses for the company of £169,138.
In the mid-1920s Bolton and Rochdale also joined the network which then had a combined output of 650 GWh. Schematic diagrams of the Lancashire electricity system are held by the Science Museum Group and some are available online.
New stations and the grid
A second power station was commissioned at Padiham in 1926 with a generating capacity of 30,625 kW and a third at Kearsley in November 1929 with eventually two 32,000 kW and two 51,600 kW generating sets. Kearsley was able to burn waste material from local factories.All three power stations became 'selected' stations of the Central Electricity Board which was able to select which power stations were to generate and supply electricity.
When the national grid was being constructed between 1928 and 1933 an interconnected ‘Lancashire ring’ was formed encompassing Bolton, Padiham, Rawtenstall, and Kearsley. By the late 1930s the company were supplying electricity to spinners and weavers, iron. steel and coal industries, bleachers and dyers, engineering works, railways and electro-chemical processes. During 1937 a total of 791 GWh of electricity were sold to 143,000 consumers and 342 GWh were taken by the CEB. The company's profit that year was £182,000.
By 1948 the Lancashire Electric Power Company had been divided into eight supply districts: Chorley, Golborne, Mid-Lancs., Ormskirk, Ramsbottom, Westhoughton, Whitefield, and Worsley. The districts were interconnected by 33 kV mains and transformer stations.
Nationalisation
The British electricity supply industry was nationalised in 1948. The Lancashire Electric Power Company was dissolved on 31 March 1948. Its power stations at Radcliffe, Padiham and Kearsley and the high voltage transmission lines were vested in the British Electricity Authority. The low voltage distribution network and the electricity sales functions were vested in the North Western Electricity Board when the total capacity was 284,750 kW.Radcliffe Power Station closed in 1959, Padiham "A" in 1969 and Kearsley in 1981. Padiham "A" was replaced by a new power station on an adjacent site in the late 1950s but finally closed in 1993.
The company pioneered accurate metering with its own Meter and Testing Department in Walkden.