Bigger bills loom as GE needs £16m
Thursday 21st July 2011, 2:30PM BST.
Guernsey Electricity’S plans for a £30m. capital investment programme could see customers facing higher bills.
But the board hopes to contain those to less than 10% to minimise the impact on customers.
In GE’s annual report released today managing director Alan Bates (pictured) emphasised how important the investment was for securing supplies, while increasing the ability to meet future demand.
But raising the money to meet Guernsey Electricity’s essential obligations – such as paying for a new medium-speed diesel engine and increased capacity in the existing cable link – would present a considerable challenge.
‘We’ve currently got a balance of around £14m. but what we need is £30m,’ he said
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I wonder how many wind turbines could be built with the 14 million? The Japanese have come up with a new design of turbine blade, which can produce upto three times as much energy as those already in use,which could make the whole idea feasable.
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Our power station should only be used as a backup, we should have a permanent supply from France for all homes.
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Are any attempts being made to cut cost to increase revenue? Unlikely. Much easier to just raise prices eh.
I wouldn’t hold your breath on the wind farm. Expect the trail to be a ‘failure’.
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I’d rather see money spent on renewable energy then a new diesal engine!!! We should be self sufficient and not relying on a cable link to. We have the greatest tides in the world abd we get alot of wind and sun. All essentially free energy, of course infastucture costs but the energy is FREE!
Compare it to the cost of oil and power from the cable link (which is nuclear), the payback is much greater and a no brainer. GE and the States need to get off their a***s!
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Recent and potential price rises might have been easier to bear if the OUR had allowed more gradual price rises over past years. And I wonder what percentage of these prices helps finance the OUR?
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I appreciate that capital has to be raised to invest in infrastructure so wouldn’t now be a good time for the GE board to sell off many of the properties they own to help towards the cost.
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The basic problem is that Deputies regard subsidies to domestic electricity generation as a tax on the poor.
In fact support for domestic energy generation means that less money needs to be spent on large capital infrastructure, and the poor benefit from cheaper electricity.
So spend £30m on Green energy subsidies.
Look at all those derelict vine houses etc which can be replaced with solar collectors. Modern solar collectors take only part of the light allowing the land below to be used for arable farming. So different grades of solar generation usage can be assigned at planning application stage.
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Lets hope that this is one time the regulator does his job and limits the impact of the new managing directors spending spree.
We’d all like extra money but sometimes one has to cut the cloth to suit ones means
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Yes we do have big tides around here, so much so that a company have set up shop in Alderney to do research. There are currently however development issues with the turbines and we are still a long way from having something suitable for local waters.
So it’s easy for the likes of Jay to say “use the sea” but unfortunately the technology isn’t ready yet.
Offshore wind could be looked at, but where would they go? Probably off the west coast but this could result in a disruption to the shipping lane and force it further west, the resultant extra fuel burn from the hundreds of ships which use it daily would soon cancel out any “green savings”.
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Stick up a wind farm at sea and put a no fish zone around the wind farm to secure future fish stocks. For those who say it’s ugly. Have a wind farm or have some nuclear/coal power stations and a ruined fishing industry along with dying seas. If someone was not making money somewhere all these things would have been implemented a long time ago but as one states member once said there is no room for common sense.
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I’m left wondering how much of the future expenditure is required to service the needs of the new Data Park
I also understand that ‘big’ business users get their electricity much cheaper than us plebs so a slight increase per unit on their bills might help
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Disgraceful there is more increases after the last huge rise .our elderly will be feeling the pinch this winter
are the states trying to finish them off so they can save on the pensions since the euthanasia was not passed in the states.
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Jay
you make it sound so easy, just plunk 80 tidal turbines in the sea and an extension lead simple as that is it.
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Firestorm
Who would you trust to get the no fish zone legislation right first time?
The recent secrecy has left all the law draftsmen under suspicion
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Len.
I don’t understand how I made it sound easy?
But I will say La Rance Tidal barrage just near Saint Malo has been opperating in Brittany for over 25 years. It can be done and although engineering and having the capital cost isn’t easy, Guernsey is more then capable of making it happen.
I’d just rather money would be spent on alternitive solutions rather then an engine running on fossil fuels which in my opinion is a bad investment.
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I do wish that, and this happens time and time again, latest being Alan Bates, that the Guernsey Press would chose more ‘in keeping’ pics of those various bods giving out doom and gloom, Mr Bates follows a long line of these, with a positively smirk worthy grin.
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I don’t think it is just the elderly that are going to feel this pinch. I’m in my twenties and a part time working mother with a mortgage. I had my cost of living rise and since that we’ve had our electricity water and gas prices raised. So much so I have barely gone into credit ready for the next winter on my electricity bills. I have brought hot water bottles and thermal socks and jumpers ready for a cold winter! Thanks Al!
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RealisticMS
So you’re definitely NOT MS Watson in disguise then?
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it gets worse and most of us have had a pay freeze for a couple of years i know ihave realisticms i agree its not just the elderly we work our socks off just tokeep our head above water .
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Is there any truth in the rumour that the electricity infrastructure needs to be upgraded in order to accommodate this new Data Park?
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Saints,
Long Port plan to have data centres in the park of up to 100000 square feet. If they have an energy density of 200W per square foot, that means each such building will need 20MW. Guernsey’s typical peak load is 60MW. The cable link capacity is 90MW.
I can’t imaging GE are thinking about anything else!
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ChrisJ and Saints
If thats the case then the developer should damn well pay for it!
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“Guernsey’s typical peak load is 60MW. The cable link capacity is 90MW.”
We apparently touched some 80+MW early this year on a particular day. Our highest output to date, I’m told.
Brings me to a point I would like some of our watching Deputies to take up. And the question is……..how much of the rise in commercial electricity usage has sent us to this tipping point where the GE needs a new station and/or new cabling? Is the domestic consumer being asked to subsidise this underlying consumption wave from the commercial sector?
If this new industry is indeed taking high percentages of of our generating capacity then should they not be taking the main burden? It can’t all be flat screen TVs, mobiles and X-boes surely?
As ever, happy to be corrected.
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Gilthead,
Long Port are going to pay for it – with very big electricity bills!
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The man from E-Si was on the radio today and he said that if you were to have solar panels or wind turbines that generated too much electricity than you were using, that GE would buy it back from you for 6.5p. That seems much lower than the 14p GE are charging at normal rate!
Maybe I should get my electric direct from someone with a wind farm!! (Torteval and beanjar come to mind!)
He also said that we were one of the few countries that does not have a government scheme to subside the instalation of solar panels etc. Surely it would be better to spend the £14m on each household having a way of generating its own energy!!
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sorry I should have said divide the £14m by the amount of houses or flats, £14m per house would be a bit much even by GE’s standards ;)
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Chrisj – some of it…but it looks like the rest of us are going to subsidise.
Neil good points. If we assume a population of 62k and the 80MW of power at peak that means an average peak consumption of 1.29kw per person.
Which is very high I’d suggest.
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Gilthead,
Interested to know what basis you are using to decide that 1.29kW is high – that depends on all sorts of things, like how many households use electric heating. But I have no doubt that Neil’s suspicion that data centres are a substantial proportion of Guernsey’s electricity use is correct.
The trade-off here is whether we (GE’s shareholders) want to take the risk of this infrastructure investment ourselves, for potentially very big rewards as the data park tenants sign big supply contracts, or whether we want to dump it on Long Port, in which case Long Port’s shareholders are going to expect to get all the reward.
Putting up electricity prices is perhaps the neatest solution – we take the risk in the hope of reaping the benefits, but the short-term cost is weighted towards the biggest electricity users (including existing data centres).
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ChrisJ – just a feeling that its high to be honest! I didn’t explain earlier but my consumption has decreased over time with more efficient lighting, appliances etc.
It just surprises me that consumption is rising…
Your perspective on the “investment” is quite interesting.
However if I want to invest in something I normally have a choice. And if I do I would expect a return on the investment.
From what I can see there is only the investment which will mean higher bills in order for another “company” to reap the benefits.
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