Electric Ireland’s price increase will come into effect from the beginning of May and will affect over 1 million electricity and gas customers combined.
Electric Ireland has officially announced its first price increase of 2022 - it was always coming, unfortunately.
The country’s largest energy supplier is increasing its electricity prices by 22% and its gas prices by 25%.
However, Electric Ireland is also increasing its standing charge for electricity by 36%, which will add around €75 a year to customers' bills, and its gas standing charge by 25%, which will add around €30.
This means the increase to its average estimated annual bill is 23.4% for electricity and 24.8% for gas.
The price increase is due to come into effect for Electric Ireland customers on 1st May 2022.
Over 1 million gas and electricity customers combined will be impacted by the news.
Today's news makes Electric Ireland the fourth energy company to increase its prices for customers this year.
Bord Gáis Energy, Energia, and PrePayPower have all increased their prices so far in 2022.
Here are the details about Electric Ireland’s increase and what it means for customers' pockets.
Cost of the latest increase
The hike in prices by Electric Ireland will add approximately €220 a year to the average customer's annual gas bill and €298 to the average annual electricity bill.
Electric Ireland also raised both its gas and electricity prices twice last year - in April and November.
The country’s largest energy supplier has blamed ‘sustained changes in the wholesale cost of energy’ for the continued spate of price increases.
Commenting on the announcement, Marguerite Sayers, Executive Director, Electric Ireland said the following:
We are acutely aware that the rising cost of living is causing difficulty for households across the country. Unfortunately, the unprecedented and sustained volatility of wholesale gas prices over the last 12 months means that we now need to increase our prices. We delayed the increase as long as we could in the hope that wholesale prices would drop back to early 2021 levels, but regrettably this has not happened.
Rising energy prices
With energy prices continuing to skyrocket this year, many energy customers may have trouble paying their bills.
However, no individual or family should have their energy turned off due to inability to pay. We would advise getting in touch with your supplier immediately to arrange a payment plan that suits you should you be having trouble.
Take a look at our guide here on the supports available to customers who are struggling to pay their energy bills.
Switch and save
Today’s announcement from Electric Ireland will be unwelcome news for energy customers nationwide, but there’s still a lot of money to be saved by switching your energy supplier if you’re out of contract.
Now more than ever is it critical that you review your gas and electricity bills and avail of all of the free discounts available to you, either from your existing supplier or by switching.
Switching your supplier is free but discounts expire after 12 months, and even if you switch and your new company increases its prices after you do so, your percentage discount will still hold.
Use our energy comparison tools on bonkers.ie today to compare prices across all energy providers in Ireland.
With prices the way they are, the average energy customer who switches right now could save over €1,000!
Don’t forget you can also switch and save on broadband, banking products and insurance cover on bonkers.ie as well.
Get in touch
Do you have any questions about Electric Ireland’s upcoming price increase? If so, get in touch as we’d be happy to help.
You can comment below or else you can get in touch with us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
