The vast majority of Irish households will see the benefit of falling energy prices in the coming days with companies rolling out reductions of between 10 and 30 per cent.
First out of the blocks on Wednesday will be Electric Ireland, SSE Airtricity and PrepayPower, with customers of the three providers set to see electricity and gas prices fall by between 10 per cent and 13.5 per cent.
Next Monday, Flogas will cut its electricity and gas prices by 30 per cent, with Bord Gáis Energy set to announce a 15.5 per cent reduction in prices.
Under the laws governing the supply of energy, companies must give 30 days’ notice of price changes.
In an unusual move, most suppliers announced their price decreases about two months in advance, meaning households had to wait longer than usual for the cuts to come into effect, noted Darragh Cassidy of price comparison and switching website bonkers.ie.
Energia rolled out its own price cuts of up to 20 per cent last month.
The price reductions mean the average Electric Ireland customer will save just over €200 a year on their electricity bills, while the average Bord Gáis Energy customer will see their gas bill drop by almost €300 a year.
Despite the price drops, energy prices this winter will still be about double normal levels and will remain among the most expensive in Europe.
According to recent data from Eurostat, Irish gas prices are the fifth highest in the European Union, at almost 25 per cent above the EU average, for example.
Alongside the price cuts, Mr Cassidy said the other good news was that “suppliers are competing properly for new customers again. Not as aggressively as before, perhaps, but there are good discounts on offer to those who switch, which will help households save even more on their bills”.
“Barring another energy shock, we should see prices fall by around another 10 per cent to 15 per cent at some stage next spring as suppliers’ hedging strategies further unwind,” he said.
Data from the Central Statistics Office published on Tuesday showed that households’ networked gas consumption was down 14.6 per cent in 2022 compared with the year before to its lowest level in a decade.
A total of 6,670 gigawatt hours (GWh) was consumed, the lowest figure over the 10-year period from 2013 to 2022.
Overall, networked gas consumption was up 2.2 per cent in 2022 compared with 2021, for a total of 56,617 GWh. Gas consumption by the non-residential sector was 3.1 per cent lower, while gas consumption by power plants was 8.1 per cent higher.
The increase in usage by power plants followed the restoration of the Whitegate and Huntstown gas-fired power plants. The gas consumed by power plants in 2022 was within 0.1 per cent of the same figure for 2020.
At 65 per cent, the proportion of gas consumption by power plants was at its highest over the decade.
