A Scottish Alternative? (1955–64)

The independent North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board had been responsible for generation and distribution in the sparsely-populated North since nationalisation (see Chapter 12 above). The new South of Scotland Electricity Board, set up in 1955, covered the central urban areas and the South (see pp. 162–3, above). Both Boards were independent of Citrine’s Central Authority and later of the Electricity Council and the CEGB in England and Wales; and they reported to the Secretary of State for Scotland instead of to the Minister of Fuel and Power. The South Board was somewhat larger than the North Board (accounting for nearly three times the electricity generated by the North in the mid-1950s). Both in the terrain covered and in its mix of generating plant, the South had more in common with the English and Welsh electricity supply system than with its northern neighbour, though the two Scottish Boards were to draw closer together in the following decade. That decade was to be an eventful one for Scottish engineers and managers, and their early experiences of the new responsibilities of independence and the task of remodelling an organisation were to provide a mixed bag of lessons for onlookers from England.