Sark government to spend £175k on new electricity grid

Sark's government, Chief Pleas, has approved plans to spend £175,000 on designing a new electricity grid for the island.

The top political committee put forward a scheme to work with two companies to build new electricity infrastructure.

It will work with companies Infinite and Sancus Utilities, with work set to cost about £8.6m.

The new electricity grid was sought after following expert reports, which labelled the current grid unsafe.

Alan Witney-Price, Sark Electricity Limited's (SEL) managing director, is against the plans.

He said he believed the new grid would lead to higher energy bills for Sark and that the politicians behind the scheme would only back down when "the final concrete figures are presented".

Policy and Finance Committee Chair John Guille said the design phase would allow them to choose from a number of options.

"Do we want to go fully renewable? Or just diesel generators, it's a blank canvas," he said.

In 2022, Chief Pleas voted to build a new grid rather than buy SEL.

But the island's top politician Mr Guille said he would still be open to buying the company outright, or even compulsory purchasing the power station.

Sark's electricity price regulator Shane Lynch described the concept of two power grids on the island as "not economically viable".

"In the long-term to have two systems is complete overkill and a waste of money," he said.

At Chief Pleas' Christmas meeting, Conseillers voted to approve the design phase of the project, with only Conseiller Ben Harris abstaining on the vote.

Almost a quarter of the current government reserves will be used to fund the design phase of this project.

The proposals will have to return to Chief Pleas before they can proceed.

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