Politics needs to keep pace with power

Not so, Guernsey Electricity’s latest report. There, the sense of anticipation is palpable.

This is an industry in metamorphosis, on the cusp of an upheaval. As the chief executive officer puts it: ‘the world of energy is changing more quickly and more fundamentally than at any point since the industrial revolution’.

The future is exciting and challenging, but it is also concerning.

The twin generators of change are the rapidly improving economics of renewable power and a technological step change in the ability to store large amounts of power cost-effectively.

Turbo-charged by the ‘social imperative’ of a public hunger for environmentally friendly alternatives, the pace of change could easily catch this island out.

The report imagines a partial demolition of the traditional centralised structure of energy supply with a power station at the hub selling to consumers at the periphery.

Instead, the ability to efficiently store large quantities of energy will turn many islanders into ‘prosumers’, who both produce and store power.

In that topsy-turvy world, prosumers will want to avoid buying energy from the Guernsey Electricity grid. Instead, they will want to generate and store their own cheap power and use it or even sell it in a system of arbitrage.

For those customers, the power station and the French links become a back-up for when the sun does not shine or the wind blow. However, they still need to stay connected (and to draw down as much power as they need) so there is limited opportunity to skimp on expensive infrastructure such as cables and power plants.

It is an unfamiliar picture which will require at the very least the ripping up and rewriting of existing outdated tariffs.

If the transition is to be a smooth one it will also require visionary political input. For there is a real danger that forward-thinking islanders with cash to spare will shift the bulk of the cost to their poorer neighbours.

As yet, an island energy policy worth the name has yet to be produced. Given the pace of change in the industry the States had better get a move on.