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Sark Electricity will find itself bound by law to put its prices down in January, as the island's Control Commissioner has confirmed he will be putting a formal cap on the price of power.
Having the cap enshrined in law will make it impossible for SEL to charge anything higher, such as the approximately 80p per unit they want to charge at the moment.
But this time last year, when a legal cap was also put in place, the utility's Director David Gordon-Brown got around the situation by simply threatening to turn off his generators, which would leave Sark without any electricity. Whether this will happen again is yet to be seen, but Mr Gordon-Brown already said at the start of December he would be freezing his prices where they currently stand - at 66p per unit - while talks are going on with Guernsey Electricity and Chief Pleas.
The legal price cap would be set at 54p per unit as of 1 January.
Pictured: The average English price per unit is 16p.
Dr Anthony White said he had concluded that was a fair and reasonable price that would still allow the business to have a "reasonable return".
"After a full investigation, analysis and consultation into the cost of providing electricity on Sark, the island's Electricity Price Control Commissioner has, today, put a formal cap on the price of its power," he said.
"The decision to impose a legally enforceable Price Control Order (PCO), which will last two years, follows a lengthy process throughout 2019 of investigation and consultation, not only with SEL but also electricity consumers and other interested parties.
"Sark Electricity Limited has accused the Commissioner of bias, collusion and of trying to bankrupt the company. They also claim that his basis for deriving a fair price for electricity was "flawed and devoid of any economic reality." After careful consideration of all their points, the Commissioner has rejected their arguments as being 'without merit'."
Dr White added that it was "unacceptable" for SEL to try to pass on to customers its legal costs incurred last year. He said SEL was using this to try and blur an official cost appraisal.
That valuation has been the crux of why a solution has not yet been reached in Sark, because Chief Pleas do not want to proceed with their planned purchase without putting their own price on SEL. They claim SEL's valuation of itself is potentially inflated.
Pictured top: Sark Electricity's power station.
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