The amount of electricity, in GWh, sold by South Wales Electricity Board was:[3][4] { "version": 2, "width": 600, "height": 200, "data": [ { "name": "table", "values": [ { "x": 1949, "y": 2252 }, { "x": 1956, "y": 4164 }, { "x": 1961, "y": 5826 }, { "x": 1966, "y": 7917 }, { "x": 1967, "y": 7919 }, { "x": 1968, "y": 8206 }, { "x": 1969, "y": 8574 }, { "x": 1970, "y": 8845 }, { "x": 1971, "y": 9231 }, { "x": 1972, "y": 9638 }, { "x": 1976, "y": 9089 }, { "x": 1978, "y": 9920 }, { "x": 1980, "y": 10586 }, { "x": 1981, "y": 9867 }, { "x": 1982, "y": 10470 }, { "x": 1987, "y": 10870 }, { "x": 1988, "y": 11112 }, { "x": 1989, "y": 11454 } ] } ], "scales": [ { "name": "x", "type": "ordinal", "range": "width", "zero": false, "domain": { "data": "table", "field": "x" } }, { "name": "y", "type": "linear", "range": "height", "nice": true, "domain": { "data": "table", "field": "y" } } ], "axes": [ { "type": "x", "scale": "x" }, { "type": "y", "scale": "y" } ], "marks": [ { "type": "rect", "from": { "data": "table" }, "properties": { "enter": { "x": { "scale": "x", "field": "x" }, "y": { "scale": "y", "field": "y" }, "y2": { "scale": "y", "value": 0 }, "fill": { "value": "steelblue" }, "width": { "scale": "x", "band": "true", "offset": -1 } } } } ] }
Purchase and breakup
The business was bought in 1996 for £872m[8] by newly privatised company Welsh Water, which rebranded itself as Hyder. The business plan was to make significant logistical savings by combining the field activities of electricity and water supply operations by co-locating in fewer offices and operational depots.
In 1997 SWALEC Gas was set up to take advantage of the deregulation of the gas market in the UK which took place in stages from 1997 to 1998. An advertising campaign was launched featuring Wimbledon F.C. and Wales footballer Vinnie Jones.
Hyder encountered financial difficulties and in February 2000 the retail electricity and gas business under the SWALEC brand was sold to British Energy for a reported £105m. The sale included the SWALEC retail brand, whilst Hyder retained the SWALEC electricity distribution business (i.e., running the electricity network) which was renamed Infralec.
In August 2000 Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) agreed to buy the electricity and gas supply businesses from British Energy for a reported price of £210m. In September 2000, Western Power Distribution bought Hyder for £565 million, sold Welsh Water and renamed Infralec to WPD South Wales.
SSE continued to use the SSE SWALEC brand name for the supply of electricity and gas in Wales. Following the sale of SSE's retail business to OVO Energy in 2020, SWALEC is a trading name of OVO.[9]
From 1992 to 2013 SSE was the sponsor of Wales WRU Challenge Cup, and the SWALEC name was attached to a range of league competitions and trophies administered by the Welsh Rugby Union.[10]
