Guernsey’s electric future: Preparing the network

Electricity plays a fundamental role in the global journey to decarbonisation and a carbon neutral future and we need to significantly reinvest in the Island’s electricity infrastructure to meet this.

The way we use energy is evolving and we are adapting. In the long term, our homes and businesses will be heated and our electric vehicles charged using low carbon energy. This could be delivered to our doors through the electricity network or generated and stored on site.

These adaptations and evolutions of the way we use energy will deliver significant environmental benefits for our Island and our Economy. Guernsey Electricity remains focused and committed to appropriately planning for these future energy needs but to get there, we must continue the concerted effort to ensure our network is fit for Guernsey’s electric future.

Preparing our network

When the original mobile phone and internet networks were built over 20 years ago, they were not designed to support the boom of smart phones and broadband usage we see today.

In the same way, the first electricity cable network in Guernsey was installed in 1900, and whilst it has developed substantially since then, it was not designed for all of today’s changes as we aim for a low carbon future. It did not anticipate the forecasted demand or the fast pace in which it is changing.

However, the electricity infrastructure has always been adapting and changing and will continue to do so.

In anticipation of additional demands from an all-electric energy future, the underground cable network across Guernsey is being and will continue to be replaced and upgraded on a continual, rolling basis.

Our hundreds of electricity substations and fusing points across the island are being replaced, upgraded and modernised and furthermore supplemented by additional substations in either heavily populated or remote areas to be fit for the future needs.