Electricity bills to rise in Guernsey

Electricity bills are to rise for Guernsey customers.

The States’ Trading Supervisory Board (STSB) has given approval for Guernsey Electricity (GEL) to increase revenues by 10% from July.

Guernsey Electricity said for the average domestic customer with electric heating, the overall increase would be about £63 per quarter.

Deputy Peter Roffey, STSB president, said the increases were driven by rising costs and an urgent requirement for investment.

This followed years of under-funding, and if tariffs were kept "artificially low" that risked creating more issues in the future, he said.

It follows an application from Guernsey Electricity for a 12% increase, to "meet rising import and generation costs and fund essential investment in maintaining the local network".

Mr Roffey said the STSB had "acted responsibly" and set an efficiency target "requiring the company to continue to focus on reducing costs and passing those savings on to customers".

"It is a regrettable that Guernsey Electricity had to apply for such a significant increase in tariffs, but this is a nettle that had to be grasped," he said.

“We have fortunately avoided the crippling increases in energy bills that have been seen elsewhere.

"However we are still playing catch up after years when there was no increase in base tariffs under the previous regulatory regime."

He said keeping bills "artificially low" had "starved Guernsey Electricity of the funds to adequately invest in the network".

"Customers now are having to pay the price of that, so we do not repeat that mistake and burden for future consumers," he said.

Guernsey Electricity said in a statement: "This tariff increase enables Guernsey Electricity to make the necessary investments in our electricity infrastructure and assets to help us continue providing a stable and reliable supply of electricity to our customers."