Electric Ireland has announced today that it will reduce gas prices by 5 per cent from 1st October. The price cut, which will be passed on to all Electric Ireland gas customers, should see gas bills come down by €39 per year.
In a welcome pre-winter move, Electric Ireland has announced that it will cut gas prices on 1st October for all customers. The price cut, which will see gas unit rates come down by 5%, also means that Electric Ireland will offer Ireland’s lowest standard gas unit rate.
Currently, Electric Ireland customers pay around €938 per year for gas. Today’s price cut will bring annual bills down to €899 and save customers €39 per year.
This is Electric Ireland’s second gas price cut of 2016. In January, the supplier also cut unit rates by 2.5%, saving gas customers around €20 at that time.
It is unusual for a gas supplier to cut prices ahead of the profitable winter months when households use the bulk of their gas.
Electric Ireland gas price cut – the details
Electric Ireland standard customers currently pay 5.035 cent per unit of gas ex-VAT. Once the 5% reduction takes effect in October, customers will pay 4.783 cent per unit. Electric Ireland’s new unit rate will be the lowest standard rate in the market.
Customers that receive discounts from Electric Ireland will also see a price reduction – and that’s because those discounts come off the standard rates.
Over the course of a year, an average customer should see a bill reduction of €39 with this price cut.
Executive Director of Electric Ireland Jim Dollard said, “We are happy to reduce prices again for our gas customers ahead of winter and fulfil our promise of passing on savings to our customers as soon as they become available.”
Loyalty
Electric Ireland has focused much of its efforts on existing customers this year. During the summer, the company also cut electricity prices by 6% and introduced “loyalty discounts” for existing customers.
The Loyalty discounts, which can be worth up to 8.5%, require customers to opt in, receive ebills and pay by direct debit. However, they don’t expire and there’s no contract. The discounts are also available to new customers.
Falling Prices
Electric Ireland is the third supplier to announce price cuts in recent months indicating that there is room for all suppliers to pass on savings from falling wholesale prices to their customers. The cost of wholesale gas is down 35% since this time last year enabling suppliers to offer substantial new customer discounts as well as price cuts.
Managing Director of bonkers.ie David Kerr said that, “It’s good news to see that Electric Ireland is cutting prices ahead of the colder winter months and this should ease heating bills for for Electric Ireland’s 150,000 gas customers."
“Today’s price cut announcement from Electric Ireland, and recent cuts from other energy suppliers, show that savings from low wholesale prices are being passed on to customers in the form of price cuts and, to a greater extend, large new customer discounts, so I would encourage energy customers to ensure that the are on the cheapest deals before firing up their heat for the winter.”
