The new supplier ups the ante in the energy market again by launching the country's cheapest electricity deal.
The past two years have been pretty tough for energy customers in Ireland as gas and electricity prices reached record levels following the outbreak of war in Ukraine.
However it does look like there is finally light at the end of the tunnel.
Over the past few weeks all the main energy suppliers have announced moderate price reductions of around 10%, which will start to come into effect from the begining of February. And this comes on the back of a separate round of price decreases that came into effect towards the end of last year.
And now today, Yuno Energy has provided more good news by launching a new electricity offer which is the CHEAPEST on the market.
Before we take a look at the deal, here's a reminder about who Yuno Enegy is...
Who is Yuno Energy?
Yuno Energy is a subsidiary of Prepaypower, the pay-as-you-go electricity provider, which has been operating in Ireland for many years. However it offers a billpay service at cheaper rates and operates as a separate entity with its own app and call centre.
Yuno launched in Ireland last August when it was the first new supplier to enter the market in several years. It currently only offers electricity but plans to offer gas at some stage next year.
You can find out more about the supplier here.
What's on offer?
Yuno has launched a new, fixed-rate electricity offer, which is around 5% lower than its previous best deal.
Yuno is now offering a fixed-rate of just 27.38 cent per kWh including VAT for an entire year. So if you used an average amount of electricity your bill would come to just over €1,414 a year once all charges are included. This makes it the cheapest electricity deal currently available in the entire market, just ahead of Bord Gáis Energy, which last week announced a price reduction for all its existing customers and which is currently offering a further 22% discount to new customers.
When Yuno launched back in August it offered a then market-leading fixed rate of just over 38 cent per kWh. However it has cut its electricity prices for new customers several times since then in response to increasingly intense competition in the energy market.
If you're on standard rates with your current supplier, even after the second round of price reductions comes into effect over the coming weeks, you'll still be paying around 35 cent or more per kWh for your electricity. This means you could potentially save a further €300 to €400 on average by switching to Yuno. Not bad!
However as this is a fixed rate, your rate won't change for the year. So if there are more widespread price reductions in the latter half of the year then you won't benefit from these. So something to bear in mind...
There is now real value to be had from switching and Yuno is leading the way in this regard. We are very happy with the response to our launch. Customer recruitment is going well and the response to our app (which allows customers track actual energy costs against budgeted energy costs) has been extremely positive. Customers know how much energy they use and precisely how much their bill will be throughout the month.
Cathal Fay, Yuno Energy CEO
Is this the start of an energy price war?
It'll be interesting to see how the competition reacts to Yuno's new offer.
Yuno only launched a new fixed-rate deal at the very start of January. So the fact it’s launching an even cheaper offer so soon is pretty remarkable.
But the energy market still remains quite volatile with gas and electricity prices on wholesale markets still at high levels. For example the wholesale price of electricity in Ireland is still around double above normal levels while wholesale gas prices are around 50% to 60% above normal. So there's a limit to how much further prices can drop for the time being.
Even after all the recent price cuts, electricity prices for consumers are still high. But for those who switch, rates close to or under 30 cent per kWh are now widely available from the likes of Yuno Energy, SSE Airtricity, Electric Ireland and Flogas, which is a vast improvement on the rates of close to 50 cent that many were paying for much of 2023. And if prices on wholesale markets remain at current levels, we should see a third round of prices cuts of around 10% in the second half of the year.
Compare, switch and save on bonkers.ie
There are now lots of great deals available to sign up to on bonkers.ie.
You can do a full comparison of all the deals that are available in just a few minutes using our energy comparison service.
Then to switch, all you need is your MPRN for electricity, your GPRN for gas, and a recent meter reading. You'll also need to supply some personal details and payment details for billing.
For more information on the comparison and switching process, make sure you take a look at our guide on how to get cheaper energy bills.
