A success despite its failure

beyond repair, the policy of importing a major form of energy rather than generating it in the Island has clearly been a major success story.

Thanks to the foresight of those who were responsible for the installation of the 28-year-old cable, which has now ceased to function, and the second link, which is still operating, Islanders have benefited from electricity prices that have been much lower than would have been the case had the company relied on generation by burning fossil fuels.

Also, thanks to a project currently under way which will establish another undersea link, there is every prospect that the present difficulties will eventually be overcome – though much work remains to be done on this project.

Unfortunately, because the demand for supplies will be met by burning oil at La Collette until the new cable comes on stream, electricity prices are certain to rise, though perhaps not until the New Year.

Any price rise will clearly be an unwelcome development – especially in the present economic circumstances – but the electricity company’s managers find themselves in an awkward position. As well as counting themselves unlucky because of the unfortunate timing of the cable failure, they must secure the revenue not only to pay for costly fuel oil but also to ensure that funds are available to complete the new cable link.

Some might say that work on the new link should have begun sooner, but that would be to suppose that the failure of the 28-year-old cable could be forecast with a degree of precision.

This, apparently, was not the case, and although failure at some level was on the cards, it was equally plausible that the oldest link would be maintained at least until the third one was in place. Also, given previous experience with cable faults that have been repaired, catastrophic failure might not have been

envisaged.

That the company appears to have been unfortunate rather than irresponsible or negligent will be cold comfort as more fuel oil is consumed and higher bills arrive. In spite of this, we can remain confident that the cable-based strategy adopted for the Island’s supply of electricity was, and will continue to be, the best option.