Read is a former chairman of Laird Plc and will begin his role after the merger of SSE's retail power unit and German-listed Innogy's Npower.

The appointment comes a month after the two energy utilities received provisional approval for the deal from Britain's Competition and Markets Authority.

Britain's energy market, which is dominated by the so-called Big Six players, has come under severe regulatory scrutiny and recently Theresa May's government put a price cap on what she had earlier termed "rip-off" energy prices.

The SSE-Npower deal will reduce the Big Six to five and create UK's second-largest retail power provider, with a 23 percent market share - only behind Centrica British Gas.

(Reporting by Muvija M in Bengaluru; Editing by Bernard Orr and Gopakumar Warrier)