TABLE OF CONTENTS Generation began to come under legislative regulation in the 1880s and 1900s. The first Electricity Act in 1882 allowed the setting up of supply systems by persons, companies or local authorities, and amendments in 1888 made such new enterprises easier to set up. A further Act in 1909 regulated planning consent for new power stations, but by 1914 there were hundreds of independent undertakings, private and public, in operation. They sold electricity for power and for lighting, meeting demand of nearly 2 TWh over the year. During the First World War, demand increased sharply, as the war machine swung into gear and factories switched to full-scale production of munitions and machinery.
At this stage there were few connections between local undertakings, and many technical differences. Although there were 600 or so generators, they were unable to be fully effective because they were not interconnected. Generators that for one reason or another had to stop producing power were unable to make up the shortfall by importing power from other suppliers, and at the same time companies who were producing more than required by their customers could not export the power. The lack of connecting wires was not the only problem: the different companies still provided their power to different specifications and used different technical standards. London alone had 50 electricity supply systems, 24 different voltages and 10 different frequencies. Power stations remained unlinked, however, and it was not until 1919 that legislation was passed aimed, among other...
