(1)This Part of this Act applies to—
(a)the bodies specified in the Second Schedule to this Act (hereafter in this Act referred to as " authorised undertakers ") being the bodies who fall within the class described in the next following subsection;
(b)every company (hereafter in this Act referred to as a " power station company ") who are not authorised undertakers but whose business wholly or mainly consists in the construction, owning or operating of a generating station or stations for the supply of electricity to authorised undertakers; and
(c)every company (hereafter in this Act referred to as an " electricity holding company ") who—
(i)are not authorised undertakers, or a power station company,
(ii)had at the date of the last audited balance sheet of the electricity holding company before the first day of January, nineteen hundred and forty-six, one or more subsidiary companies, being authorised undertakers or power station companies, and
(iii)at the said date held securities of, or rights in respect of moneys owed by, the said subsidiary companies, the value of which, as shown in that balance sheet, amounted to not less than three-quarters of the total amount of all the assets of the holding company as so shown:
Provided that any company who are not authorised undertakers, a power station company or an electricity holding company but who hold securities of, or rights in respect of monies owed by, authorised undertakers or power station companies amounting to a substantial proportion of the assets of the first mentioned company, may serve on the Minister, not later than two months after the passing of this Act, a notice stating that they wish to be treated as an electricity holding company, and the Minister may, on the service of such notice, if he thinks fit, by order direct that this Act is to have effect, and be deemed always to have had effect, as if the company were an electricity holding company, and this Act shall have effect accordingly.
(2)The class of bodies referred to in paragraph (a) of the last foregoing subsection are—
(i)bodies who supply electricity, under the authority of any enactment, in any area of supply in Great Britain; and
(ii)bodies who supply electricity, under the authority of an enactment, to the bodies mentioned in paragraph (i) hereof or to the Central Electricity Board:
Provided that the said class does not include—
(a)the North of Scotland Board;
(b)any body, other than a local authority, whose business as suppliers of electricity consists wholly or mainly in the supply of electricity for consumption by themselves or by a company of whom they are a subsidiary company;
(c)any local authority who supply electricity for the purposes of a transport undertaking carried on by them and do not supply electricity for other purposes to any substantial extent; or
(d)any body, other than a local authority, who carry on a transport undertaking and who do not supply electricity under any provisional or special order made under the Electricity (Supply) Acts, 1882 to 1936.
(3)Where a special order made under section twenty-six of the [9 & 10 Geo. 5. c. 100.] Electricity (Supply) Act, 1919, comes into force between the passing of this Act and the vesting date and provides for the transfer of the undertaking or any part of the undertaking of any authorised undertakers to another body, the order may—
(a)if the body from whom the undertaking or part thereof is transferred no longer falls within the class described in subsection (2) of this section, provide that this Part of this Act shall not apply to that body;
(b)if by reason of the transfer, the body to whom the undertaking or part thereof is transferred falls within the said class, provide that this Part of this Act shall apply to that body;
and this Act shall have effect in accordance with any such direction.
(4)Any such special order may, for the purpose of giving effect to a transfer of the undertaking or part thereof, revoke or amend any enactment relating to the powers of the body from whom the undertaking or part thereof is transferred.
(5)For the purposes of paragraph (c) of subsection (1) of this section, where the value of any such securities or rights as are therein mentioned is not separately shown in the balance sheet therein mentioned, by reason that they are grouped with other assets of the company and the balance sheet shows the value of the group as a whole, the value placed on the said securities or rights in the books of the company and used in arriving at the value of the group of assets as so shown shall have effect as if it had been shown separately in the balance sheet.
(6)Where an agreement under section eighteen of the Act of 1943 for the transfer to the North of Scotland Board of the whole or any part of the undertaking of any undertakers comes into force between the passing of this Act and the vesting date, and the undertakers thereupon cease to fall within the class described in subsection (2) of this section, this Part of this Act shall not apply to them.