Light, heat, and worth exploring
THE prospect of government working together with Jersey has always been a topic to spark more heat than light over the years.
But now a proposal has come forward to link up the island’s electricity providers. The prospects to work together may be rather different, and the new challenge to test the appetite to transfer ‘family silver’ across the water.
Guernsey Electricity outlines its challenges to sustainability, in all its forms, in the new electricity strategy, set to be debated by the States next week. It also reflects on the need to develop a dedicated cable link directly with France, rather than operating through Jersey.
What has our island to fear from a Channel Island electricity provider? It has happened before in the energy market, with Guernsey Gas becoming part of an international business, albeit that was a private company rather than a States-owned one, and with a States-owned utility, with Guernsey Telecoms sold into corporate hands.
Now the timing could not be better, when politicians, have to take stock about the future of electricity in the island and the cost of future-proofing it.
The consumer should be at the heart of this issue. If government can satisfy itself about security of supply, there would appear to be obvious benefits in scaling up renewable power options to pursue net-zero, and considering linking with a jurisdiction where the standard unit of electricity today is 20% cheaper.