The company, which is in a long-running dispute with Sark’s government over its attempts to compulsorily purchase the island’s sole energy firm, added a 40p per unit legal charge earlier in the week.
A further 20p legal fee per unit was added by SEL yesterday in response to Sark’s electricity price commissioner’s announcement that he was instigating a price review in light of the first legal levy.
This means that, from Monday, electricity on the island will be charged at 53.6p/kwh, plus 60p of legal fees – making a total of £1.13 for every unit used. Guernsey’s standard tariff by comparison is 24.77p.
Sark Seigneur Christopher Beaumont said the price hike had made electricity on Sark the most expensive in the world.
‘It must be three or four times the most expensive globally,’ he said.
‘Clearly he’s [SEL managing director Alan Witney-Price] not thinking straight or he’s just being provocative. He can’t really think the price commissioner will allow this.’
‘He’s adding 20p to fight the price commissioner who hasn’t made a determination yet. It’s ludicrous, he can’t really believe this is a smart move.’
Mr Beaumont said that in the past Mr Witney-Price had said he wanted to help promote and support local business on Sark.
‘Our local restaurant, Hathaway’s, currently has a bill of around £2,500 a month, now it will be north of £5,000. You can’t run a business with those overheads.’
He added he could foresee a situation where Sarkees refused to pay the legal portion of the bill.
‘People will be considering whether to acquiesce to his demands. We can see how much we are being charged for the legal battle in the bill.
'No one has consented to pay for this.’
In a letter to customers, Mr Witney-Price said the legal cost for SEL of a price review in 2024 was £157,000 and he accused the commissioner of ignoring a legal agreement that allowed SEL to recover legal costs from the unit price.
‘For the purposes of recovering legal fees as they arise from the 2025 review, of which we were only notified of today, these will be recovered from the unit price as we progress,’ he wrote.
‘This is simply due to the fact that the company is currently under threat of compulsory purchase by Chief Pleas and the company cannot say at what point such a transaction may complete.’
Commissioner adds new hike to his investigation
SARK’S electricity price commissioner will address the latest legal levy during his investigation, to determine if it is fair and reasonable.
‘I recognise that, on this occasion, such a price hike in September is likely to cause financial difficulty for many customers,’ said commissioner Shane Lynch.
‘I am not able to take any action until I have completed the statutory process and this is likely to take until the end of September at the earliest.
'In the meantime, I would encourage customers to discuss the matter with SEL if this is likely to cause them financial difficulty.’
Mr Lynch said he intended to urgently conduct a formal investigation and to determine as soon as possible if the new price was fair and reasonable.
‘This is not the first time that SEL has sought to hike prices.
'In the summer of 2024 SEL requested that the maximum unit price in the then-price control order be increased from 54 p/kwh to £150p/kwh.
I allowed the price to increase to 56p/kwh.’
He added that the issue of the recovery of SEL’s legal costs had been covered in previous consultations.
‘In November 2018, SEL and my office entered into a settlement agreement, after SEL had appealed a price control order,’ he said.
Under the agreement it was outlined that the commissioner would publish a policy regarding the future exercising of his powers under agreed terms.
‘In the two subsequent price control orders, commencing in December 2019 and in April 2023, an allowance for such reasonable costs was included in the maximum unit price, which SEL was allowed to charge,' Mr Lynch said.
'Importantly, SEL accepted both of these price control orders and therefore the approach for recovering reasonable legal costs.'
He said that such an ex-ante approach was also applied to all other operating costs and was standard regulatory practice in other jurisdictions.
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