Gas in Jersey - Part 6

LPG Reforming Plant with Butane Spheres, 1967

Continuing with a "A Brief History Of The Jersey Gas Company" compiled by Roger Long from research by Robin S Cox and Rene H Le Vaillant. The concluding part!

Other Parts:

https://tonymusings.blogspot.com/2020/08/gas-in-jersey-part-1.html

https://tonymusings.blogspot.com/2020/08/gas-in-jersey-part-2.html

https://tonymusings.blogspot.com/2020/08/gas-in-jersey-part-3.html

https://tonymusings.blogspot.com/2020/09/gas-in-jersey-part-4.html

https://tonymusings.blogspot.com/2020/09/gas-in-jersey-part-5.html

THE OCCUPATION AND AFTER

The German Occupation from 1940 to 1945 tested the ingenuity and resourcefulness of the Company’: workforce to the full. Shortages of raw materials and spare parts created ever-increasing  difficulties and in September 1944 production of gas ceased. The gas-holders were, however, filled and this gas was used as fuel for communal soup kitchens during the winter of 1944-5. As soon as a supply of coal was assured immediately after the Liberation. a stock of coke, which had been carefully concealed from the occupation authorities. was unearthed and used to commence heating the retorts.

 Consumption grew rapidly with the return of the evacuees and the post-war expansion of tourism. New plant was sorely needed to replace the existing over- loaded and outworn plant, and construction of a Vertical Retort House was begun in January 1952 and completed in March 1954. A further period of expansion followed and by 1964 the annual gas output had risen to nearly 700 million cubic feet. The Company now had over 130 miles of main between Gorey and La Corbiére making gas available to about 85% of the population.

A number of factors, not least of which was the rapidly rising price of coal, led to a search for an alternative raw material. As catalytic reforming of Liquid Petroleum Gases had by this time become an established means of gas production construction of a Butane Reforming Plant was undertaken, and early in 1967 a gradual change over from coal gas began. On 4th December 1968 the last of the old retorts was shut down concluding a period of 138 years of coal gas production.

Mixing room of the Butane / Air Plant. 1977

 

The most traumatic period in the Company's recent history arose from the decision, imposed upon the Board by several considerations, to convert from what was called Town Gas to a butane fair mixture. In addition to building new gas making plant a costly programme for converting every appliance in the island to the new gas was undertaken over a comparatively short period. This exercise, although not without problems, was successfully completed in June 1977 and butane air is now well established.

The simplicity and smallness of the new gas-making plant, which produces gas at over 98% efficiency, has enabled the Company to place on the market a substantial area of its Tunnell Street property which was largely used for storing thousands of tons of coal and coke.

Since 1973 the twin pressures of rampant inflation and the need to conserve fossil fuel resources have put a brake on the expansion formerly enjoyed by all the energy-producing industries. Despite the public’: evident response to these forces the greatest daily output in the Company's history occurred on 18th January 1979. The 198l price of butane feedstock used to make gas is nearly fourteen times that paid for the first load in 1966, yet the average price of gas supplied has only increased by a factor of seven during the same period.

The rapidity of recent technological changes will surely be a warning to those who would forecast what the future holds, as the Jersey Gas Company enters the second half of its second hundred years. Nevertheless, the Company is already making plans for further technological developments and, with a record of service to the consumer which is second to none, faces the future with confidence.

Spiral-guided. 750,000 cubic feet gasholder
built on the St Saviour Road site in 1949.
It has now been demolished