Jersey Electricity : Annual Report - 2023

Inspiring a zero-carbon future

Jersey Electricity Plc is the sole supplier of electricity in Jersey, serving over 53,000 business and residential customers. The Company's operations include the importation, transmission, distribution, generation and supply of electricity as well as a range of energy related services and solutions.

Directors, Officers and Professional Advisers

Contents

NON-EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS

Phil Austin MBE

FCIB, FCMI (Chair)

Alan Bryce

MSc, CEng, FIET

Wendy Dorman

BA, ACA

Tony Taylor

BSc (Hons)

Amanda Iceton

BA (Hons)

Kayte O'Neill

BA (Hons)

EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS

Christopher Ambler

Chief Executive

BA, MEng, CDipAF,

CEng, MIMechE, MBA

Lynne Fulton

Chief Financial Officer

BA (Hons), ACCA

SECRETARY

Fiona Wilson

LLB (Hons), B Com

REGISTERED OFFICE

Queen's Road, St. Helier, Jersey

PLACE OF INCORPORATION

Jersey Electricity Plc ('the Company') and Jersey Offshore Wind Limited and Jersey Deep Freeze Limited (together 'the Group') are incorporated in Jersey.

AUDITORS

PricewaterhouseCoopers CI LLP,

37 Esplanade, St. Helier, Jersey, JE1 4XA

BANKERS

Royal Bank of Scotland International Limited, 71 Bath Street, St. Helier, Jersey

BROKERS

Canaccord Genuity Wealth Management, PO Box 3, 37 The Esplanade, St. Helier, Jersey

REGISTRAR

Computershare Investor

Services (Jersey) Limited,

13 Castle Street, St. Helier, Jersey

4 JERSEY ELECTRICITY Annual Report and Accounts 2023

How we performed in 2023

5 JERSEY ELECTRICITY Annual Report and Accounts 2023

Our Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are quantifiable measurements which help gauge overall performance and guides our decisions on our operations and strategy.

7.9

EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT SCORE

Chair's Review

"We are working very closely with the government supporting the implementation of the Carbon Neutral Roadmap. Myself and Senior Managers regularly meet with the Council of Ministers."

£125.1m

GROUP REVENUE

£11.4m

PROFIT AFTER TAX

Phil Austin MBE leads a highly experienced team of Executive and independent non-Executivedirectors providing strategic leadership and robust corporate governance to promote the long-termsuccess of the Company.

Performance

The Group has achieved another solid year of operational and financial performance and is strategically well-positioned for the future. Wholesale prices have eased in the last year, but they remain high in relative terms, in what continues to be a challenging economic environment.

Our Energy Business delivered a Return on Assets of 7.2% in the year, restoring the under recovery of costs from prior years and bringing the 5-year rolling average to 6.2%, within the target range of 6%-7%.

We implemented a 5% rise in tariffs in January 2023 to help keep pace with wholesale prices but, due to our strong hedged position, and coupled with contractual provisions, we have been able to significantly shelter Islanders from the recent turmoil in energy markets. However, whilst wholesale prices have recently come down, they remain well above our long term hedged position and therefore we expect further upward pressure on retail prices over the next few years.

To give customers some certainty over the coming winter, we announced a further 12% tariff rise in June, to take effect from January 2024. As we look forward to 2025-2027, approximately one third of our energy is already hedged at fixed prices and our focus now is on transitioning our customers through this difficult period, whilst keeping bills as stable and at as low a cost as possible.

Our other businesses within the Group continued to perform in line with expectations, providing consistent year-on-year returns.

The Board has recommended a final dividend for the year of 11.40p, a 6% rise on the previous year, payable on 15 March 2024.

Climate Change

In April 2022, the UK became the first G20 country to introduce legislation, making it mandatory for large businesses to disclose climate-related financial information in line with the Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) recommendations. At Jersey Electricity, we have made significant progress towards establishing our net-zero strategy, together with key priorities, metrics and targets. Details of our progress are set out on pages 22-33 and throughout this report.

We are continuing to work very closely with the Government in supporting the implementation of the Carbon Neutral Roadmap, and myself and senior Managers regularly meet with the Council of Ministers to discuss key energy related issues and opportunities.

Chair's Review (continued)

"I wish to thank all our teams and fellow Board members for their hard work and dedication this past year, as well as our shareholders for their continued support."

The Board has determined its key areas of focus for 2024 to be as follows:

1. Working with stakeholders, planning for and making demonstrable progress towards Jersey's net-zero goal, whilst continuing to reduce the Company's own carbon footprint.
2. Continue to address affordability by helping customers with energy efficiency, and delivering our products and services as sustainably, and at as low a cost as possible.

Energy Security

This year we completed a review of our Supply Security Standard. The review was driven by the recent energy crisis, the demands of the Government of Jersey's (GoJ) Carbon Neutral Roadmap (CNR) and the French fishing dispute of 2021.

Following this review, and subject to us securing long term tenure on our site at La Collette, the Board has approved a four-year £22.6m project to enhance our on-Island emergency generation capacity at La Collette Power Station (p35).

While we continue to deploy solar PV across the Island, with a view to increasing energy sovereignty and supply diversity long-term, as well as supporting the local economy, we have at the same time continued more detailed investigations into the viability of offshore wind generation and how it might integrate into Jersey's future energy system. We are actively engaging with GoJ to determine the future approach and the role Jersey Electricity Plc (JE) should play in the development of such a project (p26).

Corporate Governance

The UK Corporate Governance Code 2018 requires the Board to set key areas of focus for the year. In 2023 these included:

• Progressing stakeholder engagement
• Building on our cultural values of employee engagement, diversity and inclusion
• Helping customers become more energy efficient to cut costs
• Investing in the network to facilitate Jersey's net-zero goal

We have made good progress in all these areas and more detail is provided throughout this report. There are also reports from the Nominations Committee, Audit & Risk Committee and Remuneration Committee on pages 80-83 and 84-87.

Senior Appointments

Finance Director, Martin Magee, advised us in August 2022 of his intention to retire during 2023. On behalf of the Board, I would like to thank him for his significant contribution to Jersey Electricity's success over the past 21 years, and for the advanced notice of his decision, which enabled the search for his successor to be completed in good time. We were therefore delighted to appoint Lynne Fulton to the Board on 26 July. Lynne brings valuable experience of utilities from previous positions at United Utilities and Electricity Northwest. Her knowledge of energy markets is also particularly valuable

in leading our energy hedging activities and in developing our future energy sourcing and product strategy, which is of paramount importance.

We were also pleased to appoint Fiona Wilson as our new Company Secretary in July 2023. Fiona joins us from the Collas Crill Group and is a qualified lawyer. She has considerable experience gained from both in house and private practice, supporting clients on a range of legal and Company Secretarial matters, and we are already benefiting greatly from her skills.

Thank You

Throughout all the challenges during 2023, none was greater than Storm Ciaran. The impact of the storm on the Island was severe and the effect was devastating, but the Community pulled together and responded in a remarkable way. I saw at first hand the work of the Jersey Electricity teams out in the field in the immediate days after the storm and how the rest of our Staff supported them and our customers during that difficult period. They all should be very proud of the enormous contribution that they made.

Finally, I would like to thank our Executive and Non-Executive Directors and colleagues at all levels throughout the business for their continued hard work and dedication. In difficult circumstances they have exceeded expectations and Jersey Electricity is now well poised to take advantage of many future opportunities.

1. AUSTIN Chairman
   20 December 2023

"We continue to deploy solar PV across the Island, with a view to increasing energy sovereignty and long-term supply diversity."

Chief Executive's Review

Jersey Electricity continues to demonstrate great resilience during what remain challenging and uncertain times for energy companies across the globe.

Although the turmoil and soaring wholesale prices that beset energy markets last year have eased, wholesale prices are still significantly higher than historical levels and we remain in a challenging economic environment.

Despite continued and significant upward pressure on our importation costs, we have been able to greatly shelter our customers from the significant tariff rises that have been experienced elsewhere. We have also continued to invest in delivering action to support the Government of Jersey (GoJ) and its ambition to achieve net-zero by 2050.

Pricing

Our focus is on delivering secure, low-carbon electricity supplies and maintaining relatively stable and competitive tariffs now and in the future. Our contractual arrangements with EDF cover imported electricity supplies to the end of 2027 and we are already actively exploring the shape of, and options for, a new contract.

In January 2023 we implemented a tariff rise of 5%, and to provide our customers with more certainty over the 2023/24 winter period, we announced, in June 2023 a further 12% rise, effective from 1 January 2024. Even with these rises, our standard domestic tariff continues to benchmark well against other jurisdictions, in particular against the UK whose equivalent tariffs are more than 60% higher.

Around one third of our electricity requirements are hedged at largely fixed prices and our risk management policies covering power procurement and foreign exchange, coupled with price protection measures negotiated within our supply contract from France, have enabled us to secure strong, long-term hedges.

Our strategy is to import competitively priced, low carbon power from France, from nuclear as well as certified hydro-electric sources, whilst continuing to work hard to reduce the costs of island sourced renewable energy to make them viable. We are now successfully building a position in larger scale solar and actively exploring offshore wind. At the same time we are monitoring the progress of new tidal technologies to see where and how they could be test-deployed in local waters.

Financial performance

Group revenue for the year to 30 September 2023 increased year-on-year by 6.5% to £125.1m. This was largely due to an 8.3% increase in Energy revenues to £97.1m. Group Profit Before Tax of £14.9m compared to £10.6m in 2022. The profit increase is attributed to £1.3m from operations, £1.6m income from interest earnings, a rebate of £3.6m relating to prior year wholesale energy costs and following a full review, our property portfolio was devalued by £1.2m. Underlying profit before tax, after removing the impacts of the rebate and property valuation was £12.5m in 2023 against £9.6m in 2022.

£97.1m

ENERGY REVENUE

UP 8.3%

£9.3m

ENERGY BUSINESS PROFIT

(EXCLUDING REBATE

FOR PAST ENERGY COSTS)

"Our focus is on delivering secure, low-carbon electricity supplies and maintaining relatively stable and competitive customer tariffs now and in the future."

Chief Executive's Review (continued)

"Our people are vitally important to achieving our

Outlook

Vision to inspire a zero-carbon future and none of our achievements would be possible without a committed and engaged workforce."

Although easing, the macro-economic environment remains challenging. There continues to be very considerable geopolitical uncertainty with the continued war in Ukraine as well as conflict in the Middle East which is at great risk of escalation - driving uncertainty in the global energy complex. Whilst wholesale energy prices have eased from a year ago, they remain much higher than normal levels. Inflation and interest rates remain problematic at 40 and 15 year highs

Despite the very significant uncertainty and the continued upward cost pressure, this is an exciting time for Jersey Electricity and as we enter 2023/24, it presents both challenges and opportunities. In the next twelve months we will be conducting a comprehensive review of our energy sourcing strategy including examining our strategic options post-2027 when our current contract with EDF comes to an end, and will consider the potential interplay with offshore wind post-2032.

Financial Performance (continued)

We imported 94.9% of Jersey's electricity requirements from France, with the remainder from on island sources resulting in a carbon intensity of distributed electricity of 25gCO2e/ kWh for the financial year. We generated 0.4% of our electricity on-Island from our solar and diesel plant, with the remaining 5.1% coming from the GoJ's Energy from Waste plant. Unit sales at 608 million kWhs were down 0.8% on last year's 613 million, due to the combination of a mild winter and energy efficiency, which we have been promoting actively via our MyJE app and other measures, offsetting growth from fuel switching.

Achieving Net-Zero - Sustainable Climate Action

As our awareness of the need to act in response to a global climate emergency grows, so too does the importance of ensuring we understand how we achieve the Company's net- zero ambitions in a truly sustainable manner that adds value to our communities and our island. Our focus continues to be to help customers consume less energy and utilise smart data and innovative solutions to enhance knowledge and insight for customers. In addition, this supports the optimisation of our own transitional capital investment over the next 10 to 15 years.

The GoJ's Carbon Neutral Roadmap, approved in April 2022, sets the direction of travel for net-zero and aligns with our Vision to "inspire a zero-carbon future". The first £23m of Government funding from the Climate Emergency Fund has been secured for the first four years of the roadmap and we are pleased that funding is beginning to flow into positive action to encourage delivery of low-carbon heating and transport.

This year, at the request of the GoJ, we helped to shape the Low Carbon Heating Incentive scheme (LCHI), which launched in May 2023, and we are also managing the process of a similar grant incentive scheme to encourage uptake of electric vehicles, which launched in September 2023.

In further support of the Carbon Neutral Roadmap and in line with our Sustainability Framework 'to be leaders, working collaboratively with others in the drive to Jersey's net-zero future', we have also been working with the GoJ Decarbonisation Unit to help reduce the Government's own emissions, and we have created a joint GoJ-JE Electric Transport Working Group to accelerate electric transportation initiatives.

To further facilitate the Roadmap, we have this year successfully delivered a complex project to upgrade our Evolve public charging platform including the refresh of 54 chargers (108 charging spaces) as well as improving the customer interface, back office processes and product development capability and to future-proof the public network. Our all-inclusive home EV charging subscription service, EasyCharge, which launched in May 2022, has proved popular with customers, and won the Best Use of Innovation award at the 2023 Jersey Construction Council Awards and the UK national 2023 EVie Awards.

Renewables

We have continued to increase our solar PV generation capacity to increase energy sovereignty and diversify supplies and we aim to increase on-Island solar PV generation to 20MWp by the end of 2026. Our focus is now on faster delivery of renewables via ground-based solar using low grade agricultural land that has limited alternative uses. Our 4.9MWp array in St Clement received formal planning consent during the year and is due for construction in 2024, while a 3MWp array scheduled for Sorel on the north coast is presently being considered for planning approval. Furthermore we are continuing to make good progress in securing options on newly assessed land that is suitable for ground solar, with good grid proximity and low visual impact, and which we hope will be developed in

the future.

This year we accelerated our research into offshore wind generation and have been working with independent advisors to assist us in defining the role JE should play in such a development and how this might be most helpful to the Government of Jersey. We have regularly engaged with the Government's Future Energy Group (a subcommittee of the Council of Ministers) and our partners to explore how this can be most effective.

Customer Experience

This year we have invested in technological innovation, communications and employee training to improve customer experience across the business. We are therefore delighted to have achieved our highest ever rating of 80.3 in the UK Customer Satisfaction Index (UKCSI) that benchmarks Jersey Electricity as top quartile against larger UK utilities. This score is up from 74.1 last year and well above the 71.7 average of the 35 utilities taking part.

Our People

Our people are vitally important to achieving our Vision to inspire a zero-carbon future and none of our achievements would be possible without a committed and engaged workforce. This means developing a diverse workforce and an inclusive culture where everyone feels valued, supported and developed - to achieve their full potential. This continues to be a strategic priority for the business, and I am pleased that the results of our annual Employee Engagement Survey continue to improve, this year producing a score of 7.9 which puts

us towards the upper end of the median segment in the UK Energy and Utilities sector.

respectively and these are also driving up our costs.

Our electricity purchases are well hedged for 2024 and around one third of our expected 2025-27 requirements are hedged at largely fixed prices. Current wholesale prices in France have lowered significantly since the peak in 2022 but remain substantially higher than our current importation costs and despite our best efforts, will eventually flow into retail prices. To help mitigate these increases, Jersey Electricity will continue its efforts to be as efficient as possible as well as support customers in helping them to reduce consumption and bills - whilst at the same time creating new, attractive products and services to encourage customers out of fossil fuels into more sustainable low carbon electricity and where possible, locally generated power.

We will continue to focus on "inspiring net-zero in Jersey" including demonstrating leadership in reducing our own emissions. This means continued investment in our network, developing new products, delivering our renewables strategy and nurturing our people and culture.

We will continue to leverage the strengths of our integrated network and business model, driving innovation through customer, digital and operations.

There is no doubt that Jersey Electricity's people, its assets and businesses are playing a central role in the community and across the island in helping to deliver the Carbon Neutral Roadmap. This represents an enormous opportunity for Jersey, to benefit islanders at a local level as well as show leadership across the international community and whilst there is a great deal still to do, we remain extremely well positioned to deliver our net-zero ambition.

Purpose, Vision and Values

Our Purpose

Our Purpose is to 'enable life's essentials' by providing the people of Jersey with secure, reliable, affordable, and sustainable electricity today and long into the future.

Our

Vision

Our Vision is to 'inspire a zero-carbon future' by being the energy partner of choice whilst working to seven key success factors of that Vision.

Our Values

Our

Values

Our six core Values are key to our culture. They guide the behaviours we expect of each other as we work together towards our Vision.

Environment

We support the Government of Jersey's Carbon Neutral Roadmap by growing electricity's share of the energy market, reducing carbon emissions, helping to conserve resources and protect the environment.

Lifestyle

We aim to enhance Islanders' lifestyles and power the economy by providing innovative, low-carbon energy services and solutions.

Our People

We aim to be an employer of choice in Jersey, where employees are engaged, supported and developed.

Customers

We put customers at the heart of our business, giving them choice, control and value for money in a transparent and trusted way.

Technology

We aim to be leaders in the application of technology, enhancing efficiencies, unlocking new services and digitally enabling our employees and our customers.

Investors

We provide fair returns to our investors over the medium to long term.

Partnerships

We aim to be the partner of choice for the Government of Jersey and the Island's parishes, supporting all their energy needs.

Safety

We do everything safely and responsibly or not at all - nothing is more

important than the safety of the public, our customers and our people.

Our Key Strategic Priorities

Jersey Electricity's key strategic priorities are focused on delivering a safe, reliable and efficient service. We recognise our unique role in facilitating and supporting the island to achieve net zero, ensuring our business is sustainable and responsive to climate-related risks and opportunities.

Our Six Strategic Pillars:

Future proof

business

model

Enable life's essentials and inspire a zero carbon future

Island wide

electrification & decarbonisation

Our strategic priorities are:

• Enable customers to convert domestic and commercial premises to value-for-money,low-carbon electric heating and cooling solutions.
• Develop affordable local renewable energy solutions.
• Provide private and public electric vehicle networks to enable a convenient solution that encourages cleaner, more efficient, electric transport.
• Provide integrated 'beyond the meter' services that put customers at the heart of the energy system.

• Lead in the application of technology to benefit customers by providing new and improved services and driving efficiency in our business.
• Create value for all stakeholders, by providing fair pricing for customers and fair returns for shareholders.
• Deliver a well-invested network and a highly skilled, diverse and engaged workforce committed to a zero-carbon future.