Public electricity supply and technical innovation in British industry

Completed

Other Power and Storage Technologies(Electric power conversion)
Other Power and Storage Technologies(Electricity transmission and distribution)
Other Cross-Cutting Technologies or Research(Environmental, social and economic impacts)

Basic and strategic applied research

SOCIAL SCIENCES (Business and Management Studies)
SOCIAL SCIENCES (Sociology)

Sociological economical and environmental impact of energy (Policy and regulation)
Sociological economical and environmental impact of energy (Consumer attitudes and behaviour)
Sociological economical and environmental impact of energy (Other sociological economical and environmental impact of energy)

Mr RE Catterall
University of Leicester

Standard

ESRC

01 October 1988

30 September 1991

36 months

£39,890

No relevance to Underpinning Sectors

East Midlands

ESRC Electric

Mr RE Catterall, University of Leicester

Objectives not supplied

Aims and methods (as at End of Award): The main aim of this project was to examine the hypothesis that the development of the electricity supply industry in Britain was slow and chaotic and thereby affected technical innovation in both the electrical sector and industry more generally after 1880. Further that the damaging effect on innovation constituted a competitive handicap for the economy , as best practice technology could not be adopted. This research necessitated three approaches: 1. Adetail archive search covering firms and institutions involved with the supply of electricity to establish the nature of technology used in the supply industry and the costs and reliability of generation from the available system. 2. A similar archive study of key industries in Britain to establish the extent to which they used electric power technology, the state of such technology in their area, and the reasons that might prefer sources other than electricity for productive purposes. 3. Tryingto fit the vast amount of data collected in stages 1 & 2 into a set of general conclusions and quantative assessments of the role of electric power technology in industrial advance in Britain. Only stages 1 & 2 could be completed within the time frame of the project. However, a vast amount of new archival and other information has been collected, which the investigators plan to fully assess and disseminate in the future by producing a volume on Electrical Power Technology and Innovation in British Industry.

04/11/11