THOUSANDS OF households face having their power disconnected from next month as moratoriums are lifted by energy companies.
Power suppliers, including ESB, Bord Gáis and Airtricity, suspended disconnections at the start of the month due to the bitterly cold weather.
A spokesman for Bord Gáis, which disconnected 125 homes in November, said 20,000 customers had now “entered the disconnection category”. “It is a high number but normal given the economic situation so many of our customers are in. They will be contacted and will either enter into a payment plan, agree to a prepayment meter or be listed for disconnection,” he said.
Some 19,000 are gas customers and the rest are electricity. The spokesman stressed there was “absolutely no need” for disconnection if the customer agreed to a prepayment meter. These could be installed free of charge.
The ESB, which disconnected over 500 homes in November, did not provide figures. Neither did Airtricity, which disconnected 118 homes in November, before the moratoriums were introduced.
A spokesman for Airtricity said disconnections would recommence on January 4th, while Bord Gáis plans to recommence on January 14th. “However, if the temperature remains below two degrees we will review that,” said a Bord Gáis spokesman.
An ESB spokesman said the company had not set a date: “We’ll keep the situation under review. By the end of the year, we will have had about 150,000 customers enter into payment plans with us, since January. We are very aware of the financial situation thousands of households find themselves in and really disconnection is the very, very last resort.”
The figures come as the Government prepares to publish its Affordable Energy Strategy. It is due to come before Cabinet early in the new year. While €231 million was last year spent on the National Fuel Allowance scheme, the Government’s Inter-departmental/Agency Group on Affordable Energy believes this approach is inefficient.
“A household is considered vulnerable to energy poverty if it is not able to afford adequate heating and other essential amenities such as electricity and hot water,” says the group’s consultation paper. “This occurs through a combination of low income, high energy costs and poor energy performance of the home.”
Among the measures the Government promised last year was that a significant proportion of the yield from the carbon tax would be used to address fuel poverty. But the actions have been described as an “insult” by the Society of St Vincent de Paul. It said the Government had failed to ring-fence money for the poorest households. The €40 million for such households in the Budget should have been seen in the context of €30 million a year taken in benefit cuts from the same households.