CHEAPENING ELECTRICITY
To justify its position as a State-instituted semi-monopoly the Central Electricity Board has, of course, to do more than earn a profit and secure the position of its stockholders. It has to cheapen the distribution of electricity. The 1938 report makes out an excellent case for the Board under that heading. Costs per unit in the steam stations under the Board's control were steeply reduced by a total of 22 per cent. between 5932 and 1935. Since then a sharp rise in the cost of fuel has off- set further economies in other directions. The cost of fuel (which is outside the Board's control) rose from 14s. 9d. per ton in 1935 to 205. 3d. per ton in 1938. Excluding fuel, production costs continued to fall, and the 1938 figure without fuel was 37 per cent. below the 1932 level.
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