Cause of power cut found

Friday 02 November 2018

A month on, the fault in Jersey, which caused an island wide power cut in Guernsey, is now ready to be fixed.

Guernsey Electricity said excavation works at Greve de Lecq in Jersey, are now complete meaning the work to fix the problem can start next week.

Since the rush hour black out on Monday 1 October, engineers had to find the source of the fault before excavating the soil burying the cable.

Guernsey Electricity said that in itself has been labour intensive.

"Over the last four weeks, a significant amount of time and resources have been invested in establishing the location of the fault in the 52km electricity cable that links Guernsey and Jersey. Guernsey Electricity, Jersey Electricity, the Jersey authorities and nine specialist organisations have all worked on the initial phase of excavating the area around the faulty section of the cable, which included the removal and storage of approximately 300 tonnes of sand. The team also worked on planning the repair as well as undertaking civil and electrical engineering and complex logistics."

Pictured: Where the fault had occurred which caused an island wide power cut in Guernsey. 

Yesterday it was confirmed the section of the cable with the fault in has been removed so that the cause of the failure can be established. A team of engineers will be starting work to replace the damaged section of the cable next week. 

Guernsey Electricity’s Head of Asset Management, Stuart Blondel, said, "we are aiming to complete the repair works by the end of November. However, the job is technically challenging, and some planned activities may prove to be more difficult and time consuming than hoped. We would like to assure customers that we will return the system to service in the quickest and safest way possible."

Since the power cut on Monday 1 October, Guernsey Electricity has generated all electricity on-island, which it said means just under 6000 tonnes of fuel oil was used in the last month to meet the island’s demand for electricity. 

"The cable link fault again reinforces the need for Guernsey to have a second subsea electricity cable connection to the island. This will allow us to achieve our aim of providing a secure, sustainable, affordable and low carbon electricity supply. Guernsey Electricity continues to progress discussions on the potential second cable connection direct to France," Mr Blondel added.

Pictured: The work in Jersey.