Jersey Electricity is one year in to 'The Big Upgrade' - its £120m, five year project to future-proof the island's power network.
The electricity company says it is making 'significant progress' as it seeks to ensure infrastructure has the reach and capacity to support an all-electric future - heating systems in homes and businesses, and charging the growing number of electric vehicles on Jersey’s roads.
So far, JE says it has has laid around11km (seven miles) of new underground cables and upgraded the electricity infrastructure to 22 neighbourhoods.
40 infrastructure upgrade projects have got underway during the first 12 months.
Work has included demolishing a 3000 sqm site that was housing a decommissioned steam turbine at La Collette.
Over the five years, JE plans to upgrade around 10% - 100km - of the existing low voltage network cabling so that 20,000 islanders can switch to electricity, as fossil fuel boilers are phased out in line with the government’s Carbon Neutral Roadmap.
It will build 20 new substations, replace more under-sea cable that brings in power from France, and add an extra 50MW of local backup generation capacity at the La Collette power station.
Mark Preece, Chief Operating Officer of Jersey Electricity, says the company has made great progress so far:
“A crucial element of The Big Upgrade is making sure that the electricity network is ready for the future.
"We are going to see more customers switching to electric heating in the coming years and investing in electric vehicles.
“Naturally, this level of network investment does create roadworks and diversions.
"We’re acutely conscious of this and work hard to ensure we keep disruption to a minimum.
"We’re grateful for islanders’ patience as we deliver this ambitious programme of works to deliver the electricity network that will meet our island’s needs, long into the future.”
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