5th April 1924

Jersey Electricity Company is established

Jersey Electricity was founded as the Jersey Electricity Company on 5 April 1924. It is the sole supplier of electricity to the island, although not the only body generating power: it also buys electricity from France, which is transmitted along almost 90km of cables running along the seabed. Locally produced electricity is generated by a pair of Rolls Royce Olympus gas turbines at Queens Road, where the company was originally based, and four Sulzer Diesels, three Parsons steam turbines and a further one Rolls Royce Olympus at La Collette Power Station.

Jersey power station opens

The power station at La Collette opened in 1965 and, as the equipment list suggests, it is now the primary generating site on the island. It is also the control centre for the Channel Islands Electricity Grid and home of Jersey’s incinerator, which converts waste into energy.

The Channel Islands Electricity Grid, which is jointly owned by Jersey Electricity and Guernsey Electricity, manages the undersea cables that link the islands to France, which import low-carbon energy, thus helping reduce the Channel Islands’ environmental footprint.

The longest cable is the 37km line between Guernsey and Jersey, but this will be dwarfed by a planned 220km cable linking France, Alderney and Britain.