Jersey Electricity blames price rise on cable breaks

Energy bills will rise in the future because two underwater cables have been broken, Jersey Electricity has said.

Of the island's two, only the newer cable which was fitted 12 years ago is working again.

The firm said this meant it would have to generate more electricity on the island using oil, rather than imports.

The company said customer tariffs would rise but it did not know when or by how much.

At the end of April there was an electrical fault on a section of the Channel Islands grid between Guernsey and Jersey. It is still not working and part of it needs to be replaced.

Cable to France

This section should be repaired by early August if the weather is good. Jersey Electricity said it hoped most of the costs of these repairs would be covered by insurance.

The older of the two cables, which is 28 years old, is still broken. Engineers are trying to decide if the cable should be repaired, but say that it may not be possible and could cost too much.

Jersey Electricity said it knew the cable was coming to the end of its life and it was already halfway through a project to install a third undersea electricity cable to France.

The company said the eight-year project would cost £60m and should be complete by 2015.