GPEG said it has been quite fortunate to “learn a lot about the proposals” and said it wants to make its comments “in the expectation that the proposals are not subject to meaningful late revision”. 

In its report GPEG claims the ‘master strategy’ encompasses three points: the construction of a direct 100MW cable connection with France, the development of an offshore windfarm that could generate “perhaps half the island’s power”, and the replacement of the thermal power plant with enough new capacity to cover the island’s needs when wind power and importation isn’t enough. 

It also claims that Guernsey Electricity will be given free reign to borrow what it needs to implement the ‘master strategy’. 

In response, the President of E&I, Deputy Lindsay de Sausmarez said she was “intrigued to see G-PEG’s report that was released over the Bank Holiday weekend featuring analysis of proposals that have not yet been published and that they could not possibly have seen any recent version of”. 

Deputy de Sausmarez was scathing of the lobby group, who’ve in the past taken it on themselves to undertake reports on various aspects of government policy. 

“G-PEG aspires to be a ‘key source of reliable information for the public’,yet this information is anything but reliable as it contains several significant factual inaccuracies and misrepresentations. I am disappointed but not surprised by their casual disregard for accuracy and academic rigour: this is not the first time this lobby group have published an erroneous analysis based on information that is not up-to-date or a flawed understanding of the source material."

Pictured: Deputy de Sausmarez.

Deputy de Sausmarez continued: “The anonymous author demonstrates, for example, a rather simplistic understanding of some key issues that inform the electricity strategy. As the policy letter will show, the considerations are far from simple, and a much more complete understanding is required to ensure that Guernsey can manage and meet demand, balancing security of supply, affordability, and decarbonisation.

"The development of this strategy has involved a lot of very detailed, technical consultation with a range of energy industry stakeholders and well-respected experts, so I really would encourage people to draw their own conclusions based on the evidenced information that will be included in our policy letter rather than this stream of speculation.  

“I am pleased to say that the Committee for the Environment & Infrastructure’s Electricity Strategy is due to be published shortly, and further information on that announcement will follow in due course. We will be delighted to explain the actual recommendations and the rationale for them when the policy letter is in the public domain, and hope that this rather odd contribution from G-PEG doesn’t cause too much confusion or concern in the meantime.”