Industry | Electricity generation |
---|---|
Fate | Acquired by Électricité de France, delisted 3 February 2009 |
Successor | EDF Energy |
Founded | 1995 |
Defunct | 2009, continued as subsidiary until 30 June 2011 |
Headquarters | London, UK |
Products | electrical power |
Revenue | £2,999m (2007) |
£794m (2007) | |
£465m (2007) | |
Website | www |
British Energy was the UK's largest electricity generation company by volume, before being taken over by Électricité de France (EDF) in 2009. British Energy operated eight former UK state-owned nuclear power stations and one coal-fired power station.
From 1 July 2010 the rebranding of British Energy locations and communications to EDF Energy commenced as part of its incorporation into the parent group, following around 17 months of dual branding. This was concluded with the renaming of the operating company from British Energy Generation Limited to EDF Energy Nuclear Generation Limited on 1 July 2011.
In 2009, the British Energy subsidiary group was structured accordingly:
British Energy was established and registered in Scotland in 1995 to operate the eight most modern nuclear power plants in the UK. It took the two AGR plants from Scottish Nuclear and five AGR and a sole PWR plant from Nuclear Electric. The residual Magnox power stations from these two companies were transferred to Magnox Electric which later became the generation division of British Nuclear Fuels. The company was privatised in 1996.
It retained major English technical offices at Barnwood, formerly the HQ of Nuclear Electric.
In June 1999, in an attempt to become an integrated generating and retail company, British Energy bought the retail electricity and gas supplier SWALEC based in Wales, providing 6% of the England and Wales electricity supply market. However it was unable to purchase another retailer at a reasonable cost to create a widespread retail presence, so sold SWALEC a few months later to Scottish and Southern Energy.