24seven (company)

24seven, or 24seven Utility Services Ltd. was an utility management company that served over 5 million homes with electricity in the early part of the 21st century.

The company was created in 2000 to manage the electricity distribution networks in London and Eastern areas of the United Kingdom, by it’s parent companies, London Electricity and TXU Europe. The company was formed in response to tough price controls laid out by the UK energy regulator, OFGEM. It was believed that bringing the management of rival power networks under a single organization would yield economies of scale for it’s two shareholders. The company had ambitions to run other utilities including water and gas networks. Whilst these ambitions remained largely unfulfilled, it is worth noting that some of the Directors and managers from 24seven now work at Thames Water.

24seven had a distinct orange and grey logo, with a verbose slogan ‘brilliant people running world class utility services’. It’s white and orange vehicles became a familiar site around London and the surrounding area and even feature in the tableau of London streets in the popular model village Legoland. The company was subsumed into London Electricity Group in 2004 and then became part of EDF Energy during a takeover from the French utility EDF.

References

* EDF Energy Website [http://www.edfenergy.com]
* 24seven launch press release: [http://www.edfenergy.com/html/showPage.do?name=edfenergy.media.archive.item.til&cmsPage=/opencms/export/www.edfenergy.com/media/archive/20000404.html]
* Wilkommen bei 24seven [http://www.24sevennet.de/]