Electricity prices in Jersey set to rise in 2025

Jersey Electricity's (JE) CEO has defended a 7.5% tariff increase for islanders from next year.

The price hike will come into force on 1 January 2025 and will add around £2 per week to the average domestic electricity bill of £1,400-a-year.

Chris Ambler told ITV News that the move was motivated by higher than normal wholesale energy prices.

Mr Ambler said: "We're extremely conscious of the pressure on household budgets at the moment.

"Over the last two to three years though, we've seen a significant uplift in wholesale market prices, power prices, in Europe.

"We've been tremendously successful at sheltering islanders from the brunt of that, but unfortunately, yes, prices are coming down but they're settling at a level that is raised compared to what they were pre-Russian invasion of Ukraine and obviously we're incurring more costs and unfortunately we're going to have to increase prices to consumers to cover those costs."

The JE boss also says Jersey's electricity prices will remain considerably cheaper than in Guernsey, the UK and the Isle of Man.

He says he expects to see Jersey's electricity charges to stay 30% cheaper than in Guernsey and 50% lower than in the UK after the tariff increase.

When asked why the tariff was being increased above the current rate of inflation in Jersey (5%), Mr Ambler said: "We need to cover our costs and we need to make sure that we can pay our bills and if we don't pay our bills then, of course, the French will cut us off so we've got to service our obligations as well.

"What I would say is that over a five-year and 10-year period we've been tracking in and around inflation so the performance, the price performance of the group is extremely good."

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