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.

Read: Yet another Irish electricity provider is increasing its prices

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