There are fears the 7pc price rise from Flogas could be echoed by other energy providers, with no Government energy credits on the way for households this winter\n<\/p>\n
From Monday, 45,500 Flogas residential electricity customers will be hit by a price rise of around \u20ac10.51 a month, adding \u20ac126 to annual bills.<\/p>\n
Experts have warned that more energy companies could raise their prices.<\/p>\n
The Government has ruled out any further energy credits this winter, after the credits helped to ease the energy cost crisis for the last three years. But more than 300,000 households are still in arrears on their electricity bills.<\/p>\n
The CSO said wholesale electricity prices had risen by 4.6pc in the month to July. They were 10.3pc lower than July last year.<\/p>\n
Wholesale electricity costs have fallen by 74pc when compared with the peak which occurred in August 2022.<\/p>\n
But experts have said wholesale electricity costs remain well above where they were before Russia invaded Ukraine.<\/p>\n
Daragh Cassidy, of price comparison site Bonkers.ie, calculated that wholesale electricity prices were now just under \u20ac100 per megawatt hour (MWh).<\/p>\n
This was well above the \u20ac40 to \u20ac50 per MWh level that was normal in the years before the war in Ukraine, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo there won\u2019t be any fall in energy bills for households any time soon, unfortunately.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Cassidy said wholesale prices make up only half of the final cost of electricity for consumers.<\/p>\n
\u201cGovernment taxes and levies, costs for the transport of electricity into people\u2019s homes, such as network fees, supplier operating costs and profit margin, also need to be factored in. And some of these costs are likely to increase in the near term.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Rising electricity prices could put extra pressure on households this winter. Photo: Getty<\/p>\n
Mr Cassidy said that in the next week or so, the energy regulator was likely to propose another increase in network fees for the upkeep of the electricity grid.<\/p>\n
Last year, the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) hiked fees which worked out at just over \u20ac100 a year per, with further increases also likely over the following years.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s up to individual suppliers to determine how they pass on any increase in grid or network fees,\u201d Mr Cassidy said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey can absorb part or all of the hike themselves, increase their prices, or reduce their prices by a lower amount than they otherwise would have.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut the upward pressure on grid fees, coupled with wholesale prices which remain stubbornly high, mean the outlook isn\u2019t great for those hoping for lower energy bills.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last winter, the Government paid two energy credits to households, worth \u20ac125 each. The credits, coupled with substantial social welfare support, had helped shield customers from high energy costs, Mr Cassidy said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo this lack of support means we\u2019ll all be paying more for our energy this winter. As a result, it\u2019s imperative that households switch supplier to ensure they\u2019re on the cheapest tariff possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eoin Clarke, an energy expert at another price comparison site, Switcher.ie, said Flogas electricity customers would be hit by a 7pc price hike from Monday.<\/p>\n
Flogas blamed higher network charges approved by the regulator.<\/p>\n
Mr Clarke also warned that rising infrastructure charges could start driving up prices.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe concern is that the Flogas announcement is a bellwether for the wider Irish energy market,\u201d he said. \u201cGiven that network charges affect all suppliers, industry experts are anticipating similar price increases from other suppliers in the coming weeks and months.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There are fears the 7pc price rise from Flogas could be echoed by other energy providers, with no…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19403,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[174],"tags":[79,2107,179,18,19,17,2108,16929],"class_list":{"0":"post-19402","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-charlie-weston","10":"tag-economy","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-money-experts","15":"tag-utility-bills"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19402\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}