Representatives from Scotland-based Island Power visited Guernsey this week to speak to officials from Guernsey Electricity about the prospective deal, which is believed to be worth about £2.4m. and should be concluded on 3 July.
Island Power managing partner Marcus Saul and partner Chris Cook had been scheduled to travel to Sark to meet with conseillers from the island, but were unable to do so following travel disruption.
However, Mr Saul said he believed progress on the purchase of the company had still been achieved in spite of this.
‘We’re not specifically just looking at electricity, we’re looking at the whole energy market, so that’s everything from heating all the way through to waste,’ he said.
‘In order to get Sark functioning as an economy correctly, you need to address the issues of disposing of effluents and all those things, because that has a big impact on the hotel industry.’
The company is looking at decentralising Sark’s network, instead creating a range of small networks distributed across the island, with each network designed around the needs of that particular location.
Mr Saul said the company’s foremost priority was safety, and so it would initially map the whole energy profile of the island and focus on any immediate remediations that needed rectifying.
It would then start to develop small generation capacity networks, thereby taking energy off the central grid.
‘The existing generation capacity is past its sell-by-date, everything needs to be improved, but it’s all about planning and determining those improvements with whatever technology we bring on board,’ he said.
Regarding how the change in network operator would impact Sark’s residents in terms of cost, Mr Saul said Island Power was looking at a three-year developer phase, during which time prices would be kept static, before a potential energy price reduction as the project moved into subsequent phases.
‘It’s very easy to speak and promise before you know, there is still a lot that we need to take on and look at.
‘We aim to get to a position where you have that energy treasury for the community, and that becomes a repository and an incentive to develop more renewable energy.’
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