Standardisation of plant and equipment for public electricity supply. An Area Board´s aims and experiences

The paper is a review of the aims and experiences of the London Electricity Board, over the 23 years since its formation in 1948, in standardising all the major items of plant and equipment used in the supply of electricity to the inner areas of Greater London. During this period, a growth in demand of some 2400 MW has been met by replacement and reinforcement of existing systems using a very limited variety of standard designs and sizes. The review describes the development of the standard designs, which range from substation plant installed at points of bulk supply from the Central Electricity Generating Board to terminal equipment installed on the premises of domestic consumers. It covers switchgear, transformers, underground-link disconnection boxes and fusible cutouts for use at voltages ranging from 66 kV to 240 V.