Electric Ireland’s customers will see their electricity prices go up from February, as the supplier’s price freeze comes to an end.
Electric Ireland received praise from customers and commentators when it announced in October that it would freeze its price until after winter.
The announcement came at a time when other suppliers were hiking prices with little notice and hitting customers with bigger bills at one of the most expensive times of the year.
Well, all good things must come to an end and Electric Ireland’s price freeze is no exception.
From tomorrow, February 1st, over 1.1 million of the supplier’s customers will be paying more for each until of electricity used.
Bills to increase by €35
Electric Ireland’s price increase will add about €35 to average annual bills.
Customers with average consumption will pay about €1,006 for electricity over the next 12 months, as opposed to the €971 they paid over the past year.
The increase is being blamed on increased wholesale energy costs and is generally in line with the increases introduced by other suppliers.
On November 1st, Bord Gáis Energy increased average annual gas and electricity prices by €25 and €57, and SSE Airtricity increased electricity prices by €47 a year.
Then, on December 1st, Energia increased electricity prices by €31, Flogas increased gas prices by €20, Pinergy increased electricity prices by €41 and PrePayPower increased electricity prices by €34.
Electric Ireland’s plan to reward loyalty
Despite the price increase, Electric Ireland has taken measures over the last year to offer long-term savings to its customers.
Last summer, the supplier began adding automatic discounts of between 4% and 8.5% to existing customers’ bills.
The supplier has an estimated 1.13 million electricity customers and holds a market share of nearly 55%, according to the CRU’s Q3 2017 Markets Retail Report.
With so many customers to keep happy, it’s not surprising that the supplier is doing all it can to discourage switching.
How to offset rising energy prices
Ireland’s energy customers haven’t had much to smile about over the last few months.
Seven suppliers have increased prices, the PSO Levy has gone up by 30% and, to make it all even tougher to swallow, in November we learned that Ireland has the fourth highest electricity prices in the EU.
But now for the good news...it’s ridiculously easy to offset the increases.
There are 10 energy suppliers to choose from and most of them are currently offering massive discounts and cashback to new customers who switch.
In fact, there’s an average of €380 to be saved by switching at the moment - more than enough to cancel out your price increase and the PSO Levy hike and leave you with some leftover savings for yourself.
