This month we get a glimpse into what it's like planning for Guernsey's tomorrow, today.
What is your role at Guernsey Electricity?
It’s hard to summarise my day-to-day tasks as I don’t tend to make many short-term, day-to-day decisions. My role is about the medium to long term – 5, 10, 20 or 30 years in the future, mainly focused on GEL’s long-term direction and – most importantly – how we’re going to get there.
Alongside this strategic planning, I also need to make sure people know about these key messages, listen to the needs of the people we serve, and understand how this may inform potential strategic decisions.
I work alongside GEL’s Board of Directors, leadership teams and the States of Guernsey to devise and implement Guernsey Electricity’s long-term strategy.
If this is something you’d like to dig a bit deeper into and find out more, have a read of our interview article in Connect Magazine.
How does your job help keep the island running?
Day-to-day - not much.. Medium to long-term? A lot!
That's a key difference to some other roles; I’m here to look into the future, understand how this may look, and find ways to achieve what we need.
For many decisions involving Guernsey’s energy, there’s the inevitable link to the States of Guernsey, so I need to meet them regularly too. We talk about the island’s future direction of travel and make sure GEL is working towards to same goals, particularly in terms of what the electricity provider’s role is in reaching Net Zero by 2050.
In September 2023, the States of Guernsey approved the Electricity Strategy. This was the turning point which gave myself and many of my colleagues the greenlight to begin formulating a clear 10-year plan for the energy future (also known as GEL’s Strategic Vision).
Broadly speaking, this involves 12 ‘strategic aims’ that fall into 4 ‘pillars’ which incorporate various parts of the wider business too:
- Supply
- Demand
- Market
- Operations
Supply
Supplying electricity is a top priority for us – keeping the lights on! This means we need to make sure a second cable connection to the European grid (known as “additional interconnection”) is online to help increase security of electricity supply and significantly reduce Guernsey’s reliance on fossil-fuels.
At the moment, we generate ‘top-up’ electricity using heavy fuel oil at the power station when islander’s demand more than the 60 Megawatts capacity of our current subsea cable during the colder, darker months. As you can imagine, this expensive and carbon-intensive solution cannot continue as the demand for electricity grows and grows.
With a second cable connecting us to the European grid, even more of our electricity will be low-carbon, even during periods of peak electricity demand during the coldest winter night.
Demand
How much electricity do our customers need? That’s a good question.
Currently our maximum demand is around 94 Megawatts, and current predictions suggest we’ll be demanding around 157MW by 2050 – but its key to manage this figure down where possible – so we are aiming for 125MW. As the world becomes more and more electric, particularly with the advent of e.g. artificial intelligence, electric vehicles, heating, and other solutions that demand huge volumes of electricity, we must focus on what our customers might need tomorrow - and make sure they get it.
Market
It’s surprisingly easy to forget that Guernsey is so much smaller than the UK – we are about 1/1000th of the population - and the number of electricity customers contributing to the island’s infrastructure needs to be reflected in the market we operate in. For some context, the 30,000 electricity customers we currently serve today might be equivalent to one small town or village in the UK.
Supplying electricity to this small market when we’re also responsible for the generation, importation and distribution of electricity too means we must always be mindful of how we can continue delivering affordable electricity – with market mechanisms appropriate for our size.
Operations
Lastly, our operations pillar is a critical piece of the puzzle, and we can’t deliver anything else without it.
This is all about the people behind the power. Our strategies also include the continuous development of and addition to our excellent pool of expertise to make sure we can deliver and create our smart future.
We need to make sure both our staff, customers, the government and wider stakeholders are engaged and know a) what our plans are, and b) how we (GEL) are planning to get there.
To help visualise and explain this, I’ve helped produce our Roadmap and Strategic aims.
Our Roadmap
Long-Term Strategic Aims
Read our Strategic Vision here.
What other industries have you worked in?
My career has been really diverse, and I feel very privileged to have worked within professional services, government, regulation and entrepreneurial businesses meeting lots of different personalities across many different industries.
My first “proper job” in Guernsey was when I qualified as a Chartered Accountant with PwC and I have spent much of my 30 odd years career in and around the finance industry.
I actually started out my professional life in Tesco on a graduate management scheme. As a first job, it was a real eye opener, but it taught me the value of collaboration and the importance of understanding what the customer wants. At the end of the day, it’s them who make a business successful.
Over the last 15 years I have focused towards the energy sector and became a Renewable Energy Advisor, forging the path I’m now on within the energy industry. Now I’m here at GEL, I’m thoroughly enjoying being a part of an industry critical to everyday life.
I have also been fortunate to live, travel and work abroad – and thankfully managed to avoid dying from malaria (this time – later explained!), drowning off boats or falling off mountains.
Want to be part of our energy future? See our latest vacancies here.
What does a typical day (or week) look like for you?
I usually kick off the day early, jumping across different meetings with our senior executives, business leadership, or with individual people. Once meetings wrap up, I then need to spend the necessary time planning how to action the conclusions, so everyone gets the most out of the meetings.
I’m in the office 2-3 days a week, and outside of GEL I wear many other hats. Sometimes I work on government or sustainability projects as a consultant, I’m a Non-Executive Director for Guernsey Mind, am on the GTA “Board Apprentice scheme” for Guernsey Post and I’m also part of the IOD committees. My weeks are always pretty full.
What is your proudest achievement so far?
Professionally speaking, I have many proud moments. During my time here, it would have to be producing our ‘Strategic Vision 2035’ and our internal strategic documents. Given the subject matter and the number of people who needed input, it was a really complex project and took a while to complete.
But the result is a comprehensive document that will positively contribute to Guernsey’s energy future, something I’m very proud of.
Personally speaking, almost all my proudest achievements involve adrenaline! I’ve climbed many mountains, sailed many offshore miles, and been lucky enough to explore many countries. One of my most memorable experiences was almost dying from Malaria after I contracted it in deepest Africa spending a week in hospital– surviving this scary experience is definitely one of my proudest achievements!
What will 2025 look like for Guernsey Electricity?
This year is a big one for Guernsey Electricity as it’s our 125th birthday. On 20th February 1900 Guernsey’s first units of electricity were generated and distributed from the Les Amballes (St Peter Port) power station to our first electricity customers.
Since then, we’ve been supplying the island with electricity for well over a century – and with that in mind, it’s time to look back as a company and take stock of what’s been achieved. For example, 25 years ago we saw the island’s biggest drop in carbon emissions as the subsea cable, also known as ‘GJ1’, was installed. Since 2000, we’ve been importing low-carbon electricity from the European grid and only use the fossil-fuel power station as a top-up and back-up system.
Equally, we also need to keep looking to the future to see how our island may look in the next 25 years. We’re expecting many changes during this quarter-century as our island’s electricity needs keep growing. That means as the energy providers, we’ll need to make sure we can deliver and meet these needs today, well into the future - and for the next 125+ years.
What was your dream job growing up? Or what did you want to do when you grew up?
If I’m being honest, I’ve never really had one. For as long as I remember, taking on challenges and opportunities as they presented themselves and seeing where life takes me has been my approach. If I were pushed for an answer, I’d say I really enjoy meeting people with different views and backgrounds, so I think being a national DJ/ interviewer would be interesting.
What is the most unusual thing about your job and how would you describe it to someone who knows nothing about it?
Persuading people to consider - and sometimes worry about - the long-term, particularly around decarbonisation.
It’s the long-term focus and variety that makes my role unique as many jobs generally focus on the here and now. As my job is all about long-term thinking and planning, my mind always has to be 5 steps ahead. What works right now will be old hat in future, and without knowing what technology, policies or people will be taking centre stage in years to come, my unusual job is about finding ways to carve a path today that benefits the future of our island home.
Who inspires you the most?
One thing my life has taught me is there’s no substitute for getting out there. Meet new people, learn about them, and expand your mindset where you can. Travelling really helps me with this as I got to meet so many people from different places, with different views, experiences, and opinions. It would be unfair to pick just one person!
What advice would you give your younger self?
Although it may sound cliché, looking back to young Mat, I would simply say: ‘be yourself more’.
What are the best benefits offered by GEL in your opinion?
Being allowed to just get on with things. My job gives me the flexibility and autonomy to work alone, as well as working collaboratively to help find the right decisions. GEL trusts that I’ll get things done and I’m able to make real-life contributions to the future of Guernsey.
To me, I feel I’m contributing to the future of real lives and doing a “proper job”, not simply pushing bits of paper around the world.
Bonus question – what is your favourite podcast and why?
The Rest is Politics with Rory Stewart and Alastair Campbell is pretty hard to beat. This podcast gives me a good understanding of global politics and what’s happening in the wider world – I’d highly recommend.
Last month we met Health and Safety Lead, John Tostevin. Read here.
