The Isle of Man has reaped many benefits from its independent stance as a Crown Dependency just 34 miles off north-west England. But the financial burden of maintaining its physical independence has been considerable, and nowhere is this more visible than in the case of its energy industry.
The Manx Government has invested around £400m ($623m) over the past decade in upgrading its electricity generation and power supply infrastructure. A 40MW sub-sea interconnector cable with the UK mainland was commissioned in 2000 and in March 2004 Pulrose, an 84MW combined cycle gas turbine generating plant, began supplying the vast bulk of the island’s electricity.
