The compulsory purchase of Sark Electricity is taking longer than planned with a completion date now expected in the first half of next year.
Chief Pleas had originally hoped to buy the power company this year.
The process has moved on but the completion date has been pushed back too.
Sark Power Limited
Chief Pleas has approved the Memorandum and Articles of Incorporation for Sark Power Limited, which is the wholly Chief Pleas-owned company which take over the running of Sark’s electricity network as soon as the compulsory purchase is complete.
The new company will take on the power station at the top of Harbour Hill as well as the island’s grid – including any maintenance work that needs to be carried out immediately and in the future.
SEL’s current owner does not want to sell to Chief Pleas and has previously warned that the island cannot afford to take on responsibility for the electricity network.
Chief Pleas is pushing on regardless and has set up “a clear legal and operational structure for the initial period after purchase” when Sark Power Ltd will take over from SEL.
The new company’s immediate priorities will be “continuity of electricity generation and distribution, certainty and security for employees, professional management of the infrastructure, and urgent remedial work where this is required to protect safety and reliability”, said Conseiller John Guille, the Chair of Sark’s Policy & Finance Committee.
“Chief Pleas has approved the legal foundations needed to ensure a safe and orderly transfer of electricity operations once compulsory purchase is complete,” he said.
“Sark Power Limited will keep ownership and strategic control with Chief Pleas, while providing the professional structure, clear responsibilities and limited liability needed to operate essential infrastructure.”
Compulsory purchase
While Chief Pleas had hoped to complete the compulsory purchase of SEL by the end of this year, it is now estimating that the court process will take place during the first six months of 2027.
Conseiller Guille said setting up Sark Power Ltd is part of the overall process and will pave the way for the compulsory purchase, and what comes after that.
“It is an interim step, not the final destination,” he said.
“Once the network is understood, urgent safety work has been completed and operations are stable, Chief Pleas will be in a much stronger position to move towards a community-based ownership model.”
The community-based ownership model has been Chief Pleas ultimate aim since the compulsory purchase of SEL was first discussed in 2021.
