PROMOTING electricity over other fuels fails to meet the island’s energy policy objectives, according to the International Energy Group’s chief executive officer.

Neil Shaw said the policy had abandoned all common sense and needed to be changed.

‘To suggest it makes sense for Guernsey to forget about gas today on the assumption that electricity at some unknown future date may be low carbon, sustainable, reliable and affordable is naive at best.’

Switching to electricity for heating could see some bills rise by 200% or more, he said.

But Guernsey Electricity finance director Iain Limond (pictured) said Guernsey Gas’s claims that the cost of power would rise were unsubstantiated.

He did not want to comment in detail on what Guernsey Gas had said without seeing its figures.

‘However, people are already switching to electric heating because it saves them money.

‘Making long-term predictions about energy prices is inherently risky, as we have seen with the volatility in the global energy markets over the past few years.’