People in Guernsey will be paying 10% more for their electricity from July.

The States' Trading Supervisory Board has approved Guernsey Electricity's request to put up prices.

The company had requested a 12% increase, but STSB said 10% was sufficient to allow it to deliver its capital investment programme without taking on additional debt.

The increase will be split between the charge per unit of electricity and the fixed standing charge, so the difference customers see in their bills will depend on how much they use.

The quarterly fixed charges will increase from £49.50 to £68.25. This is equivalent to around 75p per day.

The utility says it needs the revenue to invest in infrastructure - committing more than £30 million in maintaining and upgrading the local network in the last three years.

Electricity bills increased by 13% last year (July 2023) and by 9% in 2022.

STSB President Deputy Peter Roffey says the increase was being driven by rising costs and years of under-funding.

“It is a regrettable that Guernsey Electricity had to apply for such a significant increase in tariffs, but this is a nettle that had to be grasped.

We have fortunately avoided the crippling increases in energy bills that have been seen elsewhere.

However, we are still playing catch up after years when there was no increase in base tariffs under the previous regulatory regime.

It kept bills artificially low, and starved Guernsey Electricity of the funds to adequately invest in the network.

Customers now are having to pay the price of that, so we do not repeat that mistake and burden future consumers.

The STSB has therefore acted responsibly in approving an increase, although not to the level that Guernsey Electricity had requested. We have also set an efficiency target, requiring the company to continue to focus on reducing costs and passing those savings on to customers.”