Knowledge is power for many at Guernsey Electricity event
THE level of concern about rising energy costs as winter approaches was clear from a huge turnout for Guernsey Electricity’s inaugural Powering Life for Less event on Saturday.
Three rooms at St Pierre Park Hotel were turned over to the company, which aimed to put on an educational and engaging event to help people reduce their power usage. Staff also explained why power prices have been rising, following tariff increases in July.
The utility also hosted a range of other community groups, so islanders could learn about green energy, reusing items and discover more about the support available to help people struggling.
Planning started at the beginning of this year, said Steven Parks, head of customer experience, who led the event for Guernsey Electricity.
He said the company understood that some people may be struggling, and was keen to try to help people save where they can. He said that if people were not able to meet their bills, their first move should be to contact Guernsey Electricity.
He was pleased to see so many people attending the event and hoped people had taken away useful ideas.
‘We need to find ways to interact with customers, on what can be seen as a boring topic,’ he said. ‘So we needed to bring it to life.’
A free raffle gave everyone the chance to win a prize, including one of a number of energy-efficient air fryers.
The Guernsey Welfare Service and Citizens Advice were on hand to show how they can help, while the Repair Cafe moved into the hotel for the morning to show how old and broken items could be repaired rather than thrown away.
A big focus of the event was making it family friendly, while still being educational. A bicycle was set up, which could be pedalled to charge a mobile phone. But realising the young audience wanted something more tangible, the bike was hooked up to a bubble machine instead.
Reducing energy usage was an important message at the event, and a competitive switching-off board aimed to get youngsters trying to set the fastest time to switch all 80 light switches off.
Alliance and comparison website SuperSavvySavers were there to talk about food, with recipes for a cheap vegetable curry, at under 90p a portion, while islanders were able to sample a spiced carrot and lentil soup at 44p a portion.
Kelly Divall, 36, attended the event with her 16-year-old daughter Jasmine.
‘Bills are a worry,’ she said. ‘We think today is very useful. We looked at the repair group and we have the recipe for the soup.’
Alongside these more fun activities, there was also serious messages, with people able to learn more about Economy 12 cheaper tariffs. A selection of common timers were on hand, so people could shown how to change them to save money by using power at cheap times.
Islanders can pay to have a home visit from GE staff to learn how to reduce usage, but alternatively they can call the utility for free for advice.
A display showed what the undersea cable – which only has a diameter of about 25cm – to France looks like, as well as the poor state of the on-island cables, which the utility has been replacing. It is hoped this will help people understand why their electricity bill is rising.
One of the people attending was Ian Souter, 76.
His annual electricity bill is about £1,800 and hoped some of the ideas from the day would help reduce it.
‘It has been useful,’ he said.
