The latest electricity price hike added nearly £14,000 to Jersey General Hospital’s first power bill of the year, it has emerged.
Jersey Electricity increased commercial tariffs by 7.5% at the start of the year – on top of a 12% rise in January 2024.
Annual bill could be £100,000 higher
Invoices released under the Freedom of Information Law show that the Hospital paid £100,169.14 for electricity in December 2024 to January 2025, up from £86,271.75 for the same period the previous year – a rise of more than £13,897 in a single month.
The impact was also visible in the January to February bills, which rose from £86,280.01 in 2024 to £91,515.51 in 2025 – an increase of nearly £5,236.
Electricity for the hospital is charged at standard commercial rates, and the site is billed via two separate meters.
In 2024, the total bill was just short of £1.3m. If energy consumption remains the same, the Hospital’s 2025 bill could be around £100,000 higher.
Health under pressure
The rise in costs comes at a time when the Government is under pressure to reduce spending across health services, while also working out how to fund the construction of a new hospital, which could be complicated by US instability.
A Cobra-style group has been set up to identify possible savings.
As the health service headed towards a £28m annual deficit by the end of last year, top officials warned that some services might need to be cut for the hospital to stay in budget. One area at risk is the home birth service – the costs of running which were just over £27,000 in 2024.
Before the latest price rise came into effect, JE CEO Chris Ambler explained that it reflected “turmoil in the international energy markets and the onset of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine”, which he said had “contributed to high and volatile wholesale energy prices across Europe and much of the world in recent years”.
Discounts “neither fair nor sustainable”
Asked about the latest price hike’s impact on Health’s bill and whether any discount would be considered for a public entity, a JE spokesperson told Express: “Jersey Electricity frequently receives requests from many worthy organisations seeking discounts on published electricity tariffs.”
They continued: “While we recognise the valuable work of these groups, we are regrettably unable to accommodate such requests.
“Offering selective discounts would require JE to recover the resulting shortfall from other customers through higher prices, which would be neither fair nor sustainable.”
They added that electricity prices in Jersey remain “substantially lower” than those seen in many other jurisdictions – noting that they are around a third lower than the UK and Guernsey.
“While JE is unable to offer individual discounts, we are committed to helping all customers reduce their electricity bills through improved efficiency.
“We provide free energy efficiency advice and encourage customers to make use of tools such as the MyJE app, which enables residential users to monitor and manage their electricity consumption.
“Many have already taken advantage of this to reduce their usage and costs. We are currently developing a similar application tailored for business customers, which we anticipate launching by the end of the year.”
Express contacted Health for comment last week, but has not received a response.
The bills to date…
27/12/23 to 29/01/24 – £86,271.75
29/01/24 to 27/02/24 – £86,280.01
27/02/24 to 26/03/24 – £81,788.11
26/03/24 to 26/04/24 – £87,957.90
26/04/24 to 29/05/24 – £89,252.32
29/05/24 to 26/06/24 – £79,244.60
26/06/24 to 29/07/24 – £93,316.49
29/07/24 to 28/08/24 – £86,096.57
28/08/24 to 26/09/24 – £78,054.46
26/09/24 to 29/10/24 – £90,285.30
29/10/24 to 27/11/24 – £84,074.75
27/11/24 to 27/12/24 – £86,173.74
27/12/24 to 29/01/25 – £100,169.14
29/01/25 to 26/02/25 – £91,515.51