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As hundreds of homes in St Helier were plunged into darkness last night, Express decided to take a stroll…
Timing, they say, is everything.
If there was ever a moment for newly rebranded Environment and Energy Minister Jonathan Renouf to officially announce long-teased plans to make the island’s power supply greener and more resilient with a wind farm, the week after an island-wide gas shutdown had to be it.
After sharing the £1bn vision to States Members, a video featuring a laid-back, tieless Minister at La Corbiere (Saint Brieuc’s own wind farm just out of shot) was posted on the Government’s social media channels.
Pictured: Environment Minister Jonathon Renouf yesterday officially announced plans for a wind farm.
“Offshore wind is now a mature, proven and price-competitive form of electricity generation,” said the Minister, “and I’m convinced now is the time for Jersey to make its move.”
Now indeed.
Unless a spectacular feat of guerrilla marketing engineered by the PR unit (largest media team in the island, no less), Deputy Renouf must have been delightedly surprised to see his argument so swiftly and strongly bolstered by a blackout in St. Helier less than one hour after the video was posted.
A win for the Minister, perhaps, but less so for one islander who was mid-shower when the lights went out. Or the customers of Pizzeria Famosa, who were left blindly trying to avoid spilling their Fiorentinas and Principessas into their laps.
Meanwhile, in Green Street, Harry was among the islanders just tucking into dinner at home – pan-fried bass and chips, if you’re asking – when he was plunged into darkness.
At least they’d had the chance to start eating.
Further down the road, one young woman had just firing up the hob to make her evening meal when the lights went out. “I thought it was me!” she laughed, before starting to ponder aloud what she’d do for food now.
A quick glance at faithful corner shop La Collette stores, also dark, and it was decided: takeaway it is.
Pictured: Havre des Pas residents were plunged into darkness last night.
Islanders emerging from their properties joking that they thought they had caused it quickly became the joke of the road, which increasingly resembled a Taylor Swift concert as more and more islanders searching for clues outside held their phone torches aloft. Indoors, it was beginning to look a lot like Christmas, with the unmistakable warm glow of candles steadily illuminating home after home.
One woman apologised as she bundles past, knocking into a small group gathered outside their home as she bundles past. “I didn’t see you because the street lamps aren’t working,” she says, only to be corrected and told, “Nothing is working.”
“You’re joking?!”
Just last week, she had been helping a friend affected by the gas outage by allowing her to heat meals in her microwave – would she now have to ask for the favour to be returned?
Pictured: Some people found light and heat by sitting in their cars.
But the question of dinner was – just – second to the other on islanders’ lips: “What happened?” There followed the inevitable theorising… “Another hack?” (Island Energy’s CEO said a cyber attack couldn’t be ruled out.) “Did we use up some kind of electricity ‘quota’ when the gas was down?” “Are France starting their fishing nonsense again?”
Many unable to get through on obviously rammed emergency line, looked to other (obviously reliable) sources to shed light on why they were without any: JEC’s Twitter page, Deputies and the 28,000-strong community of Jersey Ask Advise Advertise.
Twitter user Chris Howard tried a direct appeal to the Environment Minister.
Can we get the power back on at havre des pas please
— Chris Howard (@ChrisHo39101011) October 17, 2023
A few islanders sought some actual light (and heat) by going to sit in their cars. One family’s reason was different: their children were frightened of the dark.
In full black-out, Marett Court was like a scene from a video game, illuminated in flickers by a trio of teens whizzing around on their bikes, perhaps surveying the area to see how far the blackout extended, or, more likely, taking the opportunity to use it as a private racetrack to Roseville Street.
One group of colleagues-come-housemates huddled on the coast road, who hadn’t ventured further, looked hopeful as a silver Leonard’s Electrics van came down the street, but it continued on its way.
Not all of Havre des Pas was affected. The standard group of youths continued to chatter in a lit stall on the promenade, while wine was still flowing at Moitas – both parties blissfully unaware of the islanders lining the street outside with phones glued to their hands and ears.
Pictured: The sound of sirens saw some spring to life and dart towards La Collette where a fire engine had just arrived.
“Yep, Roseville’s down too, and Metropol… Apparently Mont Millais,” one dressing-gowner reported on the line.
The sound of sirens saw some spring to life and dart towards La Collette where a fire engine had just arrived.
But that flicker of hope was soon extinguished when it emerged that they were there to sort a mechanical issue resulting from the outage – not the outage itself.
45 minutes into our mini crisis, and another flicker came – literal this time. Light flooded Green Street once more at 20:15… and then immediately went out.
It was around this time that Jersey Electricity reported that it was “aware” of the problem, and “working hard to resolve the issue as soon as possible”.
It was also at this point that the unmistakable smell of Dominos was trailed down the street like Red Arrow smoke: the first of the panic takeaways had arrived.
And more were to come – one parking up just as the lights came on around 20 minutes later.
“Bit hasty,” one chap joked as he made his way back indoors. “Or genius?” replied another, noting that they could try claiming back the takeaway from JEC (if the Island Energy saga is anything to go by, odds of that aren’t looking good).
By 20:39, approximately 2,115 customers had their electricity supply reinstated – though some reported that they were seeing continuing odd behaviour in appliances and, in one case, the traffic lights outside.
All remaining customers were fully restored just before 22:00.
Ever the optimists, and lovers of an original joke, our island’s online community began to quip: “After gas and electric, what’s next? Water?”
“Don’t give ideas,” sagely advised Facebook user Marco Paulo.
Over 2,200 households hit by power cut last night
Lights out: Thousands of St Helier residents hit by power cut
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