Is the cost of electricity still that high??

B

BrokeBroker

Registered User
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During the winter period we were provided with the subsidies of course, which were great.

I literally use the minimum amount of electricity and just got a bill for 130 euro for 2 months.

Normally in the depths of winter, heating up full, my bill would max out at about 180 (last year, previous, etc).

The European energy crises is still having this effect presumably?
Thought I'd read electricity costs would settle back down, but no?
 
Yes - still very high as Irish Energy providers have not passed on drops in wholesale gas prices. Not a surprise really given the lack of competition in the fake Irish energy market which is a competitive market only on paper but in reality is a form of cartel.
 
Pay attention to your standing charge also. That has VAT added on top so a significant % of the bill for low use consumers is accounted for by that.

Last year there seemed to be better discounts from the main providers for switchers. The discounts this year are minimal, unless you are prepared to take a chance on the Flogas plans - see this thread for more.

Cheapest Electricity Supplier

I've just ran their figures (rural day/night) against my annual consumption and unit rates and, much to my surprise, my current Energia deal is 19% cheaper. o_O (And that excludes the €50 discount that I got for staying with Energia). So caveat emptor! That's interesting. I had a look at...
www.askaboutmoney.com
 
BrokeBroker said:
I literally use the minimum amount of electricity and just got a bill for 130 euro for 2 months.
Click to expand...
Check your bill and you'll probably see that fixed charges such as the standing charge are a big chunk of that total.
And what's "the minimum" in kW/h units?

Edit: apologies @odyssey06 - I didn't notice that you had already mentioned the standing charge!
 
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Business unit rates have dropped dramatically.

At one point it was over 60c +vat + passthrough charges (about 10c)

Last month my rate was 16.8c + about 10c charges (energia)

So domestic has to fall soon and fairly substantially.

In saying that, I expect to be paying 25c+charges in Nov/Dec as that's how the "market rate" system works.

Btw, I'm not a big user, (€400 a month average) this is a rate available to a small business
 
Don’t energy suppliers buy electricity and gas contracts in advance via futures or hedging? This explains why they have not come down? Current wholesale prices are dropping yes but it takes 6-12 months for these to pass through to consumers (although they Jack them up pretty quickly)

My recent bill is 120 euro more expensive than this time last year. Similar usage
 
Very high , we bought an EV earlier this year and even though we are diligent in terms of charging at lowest rate hours , the savings over diesel are marginal
 
Need to change the wind energy feed in system whereby the wind energy companies get a relatively high minimum unit price when there is no demand and still reap the high prices as a result of high gas prices at peak demand even though they are not purchasing any gas. Either the wind energy companies are paid the market price for power or a set minimum price all the time, one or the other.

The current system means that they are having their cake and eating it while the costs of this very expensive system are being passed onto the consumer
 
The mother in law (90 years of age, living alone, only income being widow's pension, plus fuel allowance) received her electricity bill last week.

Her oil tank is almost full and she's still got over €170 in credit after Eamon Ryan's springtime largesse. (If she didn't live 240 km away, I'd be tempted to start using her washing machine and dishwasher!)
 
A theory I read online is that electricity companies had year contracts signed for their supply, and some of those are expiring - witness Bord Gais offering 40% discounts to existing customers for retention. So there may be such a pattern. If your contract is up, and you don't like what is being offered, it could be worth waiting a month on a rolling basis with your supplier to see if better deals become available with them or elsewhere.

It's a time of year when energy use should be relatively low.
 
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