The council's responsibilities included:[2] In 1954, six years after nationalisation, the government appointed the Herbert Committee to examine the efficiency and organisation of the electricity industry.
[3] The committee found that the British Electricity Authority's dual roles of electricity generation and supervision had led to central concentration of responsibility and to duplication between headquarters and divisional staff which led to delays in the commissioning of new stations.
It comprised a chairman, two deputy chairmen, and up to three other independent people appointed by the Minister of Power.
It also included the chairman and two full-time members of the Central Electricity Generating Board.
[4] The headquarters were in London, initially in Trafalgar Buildings in Charing Cross Road, then in the 1960s at Millbank Tower.
For liaison with the Area Electricity Boards outstation offices were established such as in Bristol.
[8] The Electricity Council’s Electro-Agriculture Centre was established in 1967 at the Royal Showground at Stoneleigh, Warwickshire.
[8] Over the following decade the council published a series of guides on aspects of the role of electricity in farming and agriculture.