Strategy cost may be a turn-off
The electricity strategy being debated by the States this week makes a lot of sense. It recognises that electricity is the future, and it sets out what kind of generation can best serve Guernsey.
Solar power can’t do the job all by itself. Tidal power is still emerging technology. We need more independence on the cable link. Security of supply means we must be able to generate power on-island. Wind power – there is an opportunity there, but how to go about it?
Deputies are likely to approve the strategy – but there will be concerns raised about the cost of it. £1.7bn over 30 years or so, with very little idea of how it should be paid for, bar the Guernsey Electricity customer.
Treasury lead Mark Helyar makes good sense when he complains how the States makes strategy and policy in a vacuum, without thinking how to pay for it.
Environment & Infrastructure advises only that this looks like a good deal, with the States facing a £2bn bill for electricity infrastructure if it doesn’t take the right action. Is any States member outside that committee aware of that cost? If it is out there, it’s slipped past most of us.
Deputy Helyar says the States should be working out what it can afford, rather than ‘dreaming up ideas’ and trying to find ways to get the public to pay for it. That might well be where the electricity strategy turns some off.