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ENERGIA HAS ANNOUNCED that it will increase its household electricity price by 3.9% from 1 December 2017.
This comes just a few weeks after Electric Ireland, Bord Gáis Energy and SSE Airtricity announced increases in their gas and electricity prices.
Energia has said that the electricity price increase is due to the rising wholesale gas prices and increased network costs.
The increase will take the supplier’s standard unit rate to 17.3%, excluding VAT, and will costs customers with average consumption an extra €31 a year on their bills.
Commenting on the price hike, Mark Whelan of Bonkers.ie said: “This is the fourth energy price increase announcement in the last four weeks, meaning that one thing is very clear – energy prices are on the rise.
It is likely that more suppliers will announce hikes in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile, SSE Airtricity’s change amounts to an increase of 90 cent per week or €46.80 per year for someone with average consumption on their 24hr SmartSaver standard tariff.
Bord Gáis Energy said its announcement will increase a typical gas bill by €2.12 a month and a typical electricity bill by €4.77 a month.
In a statement earlier this month, Bord Gáis Energy said: “The changes, which will take effect from 1st November 2017, are due to significant increases in the wholesale cost of energy as well as higher costs associated with distributing energy on the gas and electricity networks.
“In percentage terms, the increase represents 3.4% in a typical customer’s gas bill and an increase of 5.9% in a typical customer’s electricity bill.”
Eoin Clarke, managing director of Switcher.ie said that if customers haven’t switched electricity provider in over a year that they should review the deals available at the moment.
The market is highly competitive so there are huge savings to be made by switching.
“All suppliers use the same cables to supply electricity to your home, so you don’t need to worry about any loss in service, and you could save up to 324 by switching from typical standard tariffs to the cheapest deals on the market,” Clarke said.
The PSO levy also increased earlier this month, adding €25 to annual bills.
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So much for competition keeping prices low. Cartels.
@Sean: its the so called green energy…… Its what is really driving the price. Green energy is far from green and expensive!
@Sean: imagine the price if there wasn’t anyone trying to get you to switch. Airtricity offered me 200 credit to switch. Those kind of things aren’t being taken into account here
@Jamie Jj Tobin: that not true. Main costs are the carbon and nuclear sources.
@Jamie Jj Tobin: look at greg ramsells post below!!!
@Sean: There is one electricity provider ESB networks. You can choose to pay whichever middle man you want.
There goes the rise in my pension…Vodafone Broadband and Energia have just swooped in and scooped it.
The Green Party’s regressive carbon taxes PSO levies along with Greens pre 08 regressive car tax along with them setting us a useless energy regulator,who Greens must have told the regulator to keep electricity prices really high as they think we Ireland having a third of the country in heating and lighting poverty will somehow save the world. Green tree huggers have thousands dead from the cold as they where and are living in fuel poverty.
We are constantly being screwed in this country, and it seems we are powerless to do anything about it.
The two traitor parties know this, they know stupid people will continue to vote them back into power, over and over again…see-sawing between FF, FG, FG and back again.
As for the fake competition authority, and the pretend consumer protection branch, and the missing in action energy regulator – they are all just part of the same corrupt little sesspit that is Ireland.
What we need is some sort of Independent Consumers Union…one with teeth…I know this is wishful thinking, but can you imagine what would happen to prices if hundreds of thousands of households threaten to switch their energy provider… all at once.
@Jamie Jj Tobin: green energy is cost neutral compared to standard “brown” energy… in saying that, those offering “green” energy can’t support that it is, in fact, 100% renewable.
Where is the Competition Authority on this?
@Dreyfus: same place it was during the last increase…..
@Dreyfus: I presume they enjoy part of Leo’s €5 million spin found.
@Dreyfus:
Govt, quango, stuffed with establishment supporters and duty nodders.
More fun to complain to the moon.
Government stealth tax actually, they just introduced an extra levy of €25 annually, energy companies just recouping their losses I’d say, remember this at election time.
@Charles Coughlan: That’s not wjar this increase is for though. They’ve been very clear their statement
@Charles Coughlan: Leo is going to win any election, even with taxes being raised twice higher. People love him and Fine Gael.
Just gets harder to live in this kip of a country.
@mdmak33: Wouldn’t agree. Most people experience incredible improvement of quality of life for recent years. Election results says it – 50% Irish support FF / FG. I can see it around every day. Remember miserable 2010 when people were bringing leftovers from home for lunch or drinking cheap instant coffee provided by employer. Now they don’t mind to fork €50 for organic lunch and artisan caffee every day.
What’s the energy regulator doing? They are making us pay the most expensive in Europe if not the world given has so much companies here &”competition”?
The Green party have us robbed with their carbon taxes, PSO levies and loads other UNFAIR INSANE & UNJUST Green Party regressive taxes and charges on electricity,solid fuels and virtually everything even though Ireland is a tiny on Global environment. The Greens made ESB dearest in Europe overnight in 2009 while we got a second energy company. This just after the Greens left pre 08 cars on 4 times higher car tax. Where was & is the competition with the many companies we have now? Wholesale price was down 40% & these greedy companies only cut prices by a measly 3%,was the energy regulator asleep or taking advice from the former and current banking regulators? Eamon Ryan your tree huggings have hundreds of thousands in electricity home heating, fuel and car tax poverty & this leads to homelessness too. Energy regulator start doing your job & slash the unit prices here and ensure proper competition now.
@Jay Lane: couldnt have put it better. We have such a short memory as to those cheap wholesale gas prices of a few months ago, where the electric companies gave a pittance reduction to our electric bills.
These companies are just resellers. They’re just a plush office in a glass building headed up by a fat fella in a suit with lots of money. If you start a portable honda generator you’ve already generated more than a lot of these companies generate in a year.
They serve no purpose. They only exist because the EU has stepped in and created a space for them to sit and mooch money on the back of the ESB.
@Quiet Goer: this is untrue. All the companies listed above have significant generation plants.
Gas, electricity, bus, rail and luas fares all increased this week,there goes the 5 euro increase awarded to social welfare dependents in the budget and which will not be paid until March 2018 and the paltry adjustments for those who have to get up early, an equal society indeed Leo, all struggling.
Its fine sure we all got thousands back in USC cuts in the budget, to cover it….oh wait
There goes the pittens you got from your Finance Minister recently. Even before you get anything he taking it back, Great little country
They all work together.. Rip off as a whole .. Don’t expect FG to do anything about it. Their core vote have no issues paying..
So they increase the price…but still not allowed to cancel contract…seems fair….
@Gareth Miskelly: it’s nowhere near fair
And Germany is going to pay its customers to use electricity this weekend. https://www.google.ie/amp/www.independent.co.uk/environment/germany-grids-paying-electricity-customers-renewable-energy-power-surplus-wind-solar-generation-a8022576.html%3famp
Does anyone know how much of the market these 4 energy companies have?
I know in the US that 4 airlines have over 80% of market share and they’ve said before they don’t think they’ll ever lose money again.
Time to break up the energy companies here and let American break up their airlines.
And in case you think it can’t be done, Standard Oil controlled 98% of all oil in America by 1910.
The next year, their government said it was too big and broke it up into 34 separate entities and the consumer, and society, was much better off.
Up and up and up. Pure cartels. Just like the car phone TV industry
Micro generation and being allowed to feed your excess into the grid was stopped a while back which was a bonkers crony decision.
Ireland’s solar output compared to Britain is laughable.
More likely, this is the ‘stick’ to make the ‘carrot’ of smart metering more appealing. How many more increases will we see, adding 30 or 40 quid a year to your bill, before they make you pay for an intrusive device that saves you a whopping 20 quid a year! No overall cost to them, you get conned into thinking you’re saving cash, they get access to your valuable metrics, they slough off meter reading staff saving them even more and the government keeps skimming its take off the top in the name of ‘renewable’ energy. Everyone’s a winner! Right?
Maybe we should be loking at nucleor source of energy
@Dave barrett: they’d still s***w you in this country. They don’t want to be clean here in Ireland at all because the fat cats will just get skinny!!
There at it again no regulations in this country it’s just a cartel where are the regulator on this have not had a wage increase since 2007 how do they expecting us to pay these price increase fed up to the back teeth
Someone could be minded to complain to the European Competition Authority
The State should generate excess supply which will take down pricing. Its not rocket science!
There goes the giveaway budget.
The fictitious competition between these energy companies is exposed by the timing & scale of the increases to hit all consumers nearly simultaneously & nearly the same %.
The attribute the cause to the state pso levy increase, which creeps up incessantantly, but it is paid to the generators as green energy subsidies.
The VAT does pay a higher yield on the increased bills, so the Minister of Finance gets a cut by stealth.
As for the increased wholesale price of gas etc, when is our local wind, turf, tidal, & Shannon power going to yield a counterbalancing price benefit to the Irish consumer & industry? We should be getting a benefit from the pso investment.
That is a question for the regulator & the Economy Ministers to answer.
CARTEL.
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