With easterly winds bringing sub-zero temperatures, power usage peaked at 165.1 megawatts at 9.30 pm on Tuesday night and was surpassed on Wednesday evening as demand on the grid reached 175 megawatts at around the same time.
An even higher power usage of 178 megawatts was recorded on Thursday at 12.30 pm. The previous highest demand on the grid, before this week, was 161 megawatts in February 2012.
Chris Ambler, Jersey Electricity’s chief executive, said that two diesel generators were fired up to top up the supply from France. ‘We were forecasting that on Wednesday night we would see a new peak but we couldn’t quite believe the increase that we saw,’ he said.
Mr Ambler explained that 9.30 pm was the usual peak time for electricity usage as household heating is still turned on and electrical appliances are still being used. The average peak power usage at this time of year is usually around 135 to 140 megawatts, while during the summer it is usually around 80 to 90 megawatts. There are around 45,000 electricity customers in Jersey.
Mr Ambler said that he believed the increase in demand this week was in part due to many customers switching to electrical heating from gas or oil heating over the last few years.
‘We have done well with moving people over to electricity from oil and gas, which are our main competitors when it comes to heating,’ he said.
‘The price of electricity in Jersey is very competitive.’
He added: ‘We haven’t had any issues with overhead cables coming down but we have engineering teams on stand-by. I should thank our distribution, production and engineering teams, who I think have done a great of job of maintaining the supply of electricity.’
