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Sark's electricity stayed on on Friday, despite negotiations coming right down to the wire. But what led to that situation in the first place?
It's been resolved for now, with an agreement between the privately owned utility and Chief Pleas, which was struck early on Friday morning, and which will see the government take over control of the utility firm in three months.
But in the meanwhile, Sark Electricity will continue to charge 66p a unit rather than 52p. The whole dispute kicked off over these prices, when Chief Pleas created the new governmental role of an electricity price commissioner. That commissioner made an order for the prices to be reduced, but the owner of Sark Electricity said reducing his prices by 14p would cut his earnings by £20,000 a month, and so threatened to walk out, leaving the power to go off.
The deal that was struck at 01:00 on Friday morning saw signatures put to paper just hours before that action was supposed to be taken.
That deal states that:
Pictured: A temporary generator outside of the island hall. Any decision came right down to the wire, to the point where residents had prepared for the worst.
Going forward, Sark Electricity could evolve in a number of ways. The exact structure it will take will be indicated in a vision document Chief Pleas are producing surrounding the island's energy production.
Major Christopher Beaumont, Sark's Seigneur, said he would be closely involved in the process going forward.
"There are lots of potential structures that could be put in place that don't mean Sark Electricity remains in the hands of a single entity, we could put a much more social model of ownership in place, for example. I have views of how I would like people to be buying into energy production," he said.
"It's been a long process, but there is a vision document being put together on the future of Sark energy, so how Sark will manage its energy budget. That goes beyond electricity - there is a big piece of work to be done. So there is a vision statement that is in the late stage draft, and then for the future, it's a question of how do you weave what we have into what we want. From my perspective, this is a long term project."
Pictured: David Gordon Brown was threatening to turn off the power and retire when he was told he had to slash his prices, but he emphasised he didn't want to have to do that. He is in Sark to run the power station "not turn it off".
But while this deal has been done, the questions still remains as to what has changed. Previously, Mr Gordon-Brown has offered to sell Sark Electricity to Chief Pleas, but they have not been able to conduct enough due diligence on the company to go ahead with any purchase. And now, prices are back to their original heights.
The Seigneur said the key difference now was that everyone was on the same page: "To start the valuation process with an agreed terms of reference, so that we are all happy that the evaluators are doing something that both sides understand, makes it then become a consensual process, whereas before it's been an adversarial process."
One concern put to the Seigneur was how the dispute put Sark in the national spotlight in a negative way. The potential of "Sark going dark" was featured on national news, and also called into question the relationship between the UK and the Bailiwick. Lord Richard Keen said if lights did go off, there was the potential for the UK to intervene, which could have had wider implications for Sark and Guernsey's constitutions.
Chief Pleas agreed on the deal with Mr Gordon-Brown's lawyers at 01:00 on Friday, hours before he had said he would turn the power off.
But Major Beaumont argued the deal being struck at the last minute did not show Sark in a bad light. Rather it proved they could pull together in a mature way and resolve problems.
"It has offered everyone an opportunity to see that will is there and the capability is there, and it shows everyone that the community of Sark is very capable of pulling together. It has a can do attitude. It looks after itself and looks after other people. I'm delighted to have seen everyone acting so well in the face of what could have happened.
"I think we could guarantee peoples safety. I'm absolutely convinced that our people would have just gone about their lives in the usual way. If you live on a rock, you become resilient. This shows the island doesn't need to go elsewhere for help.
As to why the deal was struck at the final hour, he said: "These things always take so long, a negotiation goes down to the wire because you're keen to get the best deal you can. A deal is never done until it's done and that was always going to take a long time."
Sark's Chairman of Policy and Finance, William Raymond.
Speaking on behalf of Chief Pleas, Chairman of Policy and Finance, William Raymond said he was glad the whole situation was over with.
"It had to be resolved, because there are people here - we don't have a hospital - they depend on home treatment, some of that is powered by electricity. What price is life."
He also confirmed the Price Commissioner would stay in place, despite his first decision now being overruled.
Owner of Sark Electricity, David Gordon-Brown, added that he was happy with the deal, and would move to Canada to be with his family when the transition period was completed.
Pictured top: the lights stayed on at Sark Electricity.
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