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Business Review 2006 from
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Born 1830 - still going strong
Ian Wilson
Jersey Gas
THE history of the Jersey Gas Company starts with the idea of one man, Thomas Edge.
He purchased a site in what is now Gas Place and Robin Place on the 7 June 1830 and erected a gas-making plant to provide a fuel for lighting.
In March 1831, he was able to supply gas to shops in St Helier.
In 1856, Mr Edge sold the Gas Company to the founders of the present company, and by that time most of the shops in St Helier were lit by gas, in addition to 241 private houses.
The company had realised that the gas making plant would soon be unable to produce enough additional gas to meet the increase in demand and so in 1894 it purchased land at Tunnell Street from the Robin Family and in 1897 a new horizontal retort gas-making plant was erected on the new site.
The German Occupation of the Island abruptly halted the company's progress and in September 1944 the company ceased production until the Liberation of the Island in 1945 although during the winter of 1944/45, gas was used from a storage holder to supply fuel for soup kitchens.
By 1964, the company had over 130 miles of gas mains laid in the Island.
A complete reappraisal of the methods of gas production was undertaken, and eventually it was decided to use a new fuel. In 1967, a reformed liquid petroleum gas (LPG) plant was installed.
On the 5 December 1968 the retort house was shut down after 137 years of producing gas from coal.
Street lighting, which had long been the prerogative of gas, was slowly phased out in the Sixties and had gone completely by 1968.
The advent of natural gas in the UK forced the company to rethink its policy on the production of gas after much research and considerable deliberations, the decision was made to build a butane/air plant.
This decision resulted in 12,800 customers having all their appliances converted, some 35,000 appliances.
Conversion
Conversion took place and the last sector; thereby completing the conversion to butane/air was turned on on 27 June 1977.
In 1991 the company moved its offices, stores, workshops and showroom from the antiquated complex in Bath Street to a modern building under one roof in Tunnell Street.
The company was to face a further change when in 1992 when it was taken over by what was then the Guernsey Gas Company. The parent company subsequently changed its name to International Energy Group.
In 1999 the company purchased its first LPG vehicle, since then all replacement cars and light vans have been either LPG only or duel fuel. Other vehicle drivers had also seen the benefit of gas-powered vehicles and there are now over 150 LPG powered cars and vans in the Island.
In 2005 Prime Infrastructure, now Babcock and Brown Infrastructure, purchased IEG. and they remain the company's current owners.
As one of Jerseys oldest companies, Jersey Gas is proud to have provided islanders with a quality product and a quality service, for the past 175 years and hope to continue to do so for many years to come.
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