Electric Ireland has announced today that it will reduce electricity prices from 1st June. The price reduction, which will be passed on to all Electric Ireland customers, will see the cost electricity come down by 6%, saving households €57.75 per year – or almost €5 per month.
Electric Ireland’s price cut announcement represents the largest electricity price reduction from any supplier since wholesale energy prices began falling two years ago.
When the electricity price cut takes effect on 1st June, it will be Electric Ireland’s third price cut in just over a year and a half.
As wholesale energy prices started to fall in 2014, Electric Ireland was the first supplier to reduce household electricity prices when it cut unit rates by 2% in November 2014. The company cut prices again in November 2015 with a 3% unit rate reduction.
Electric Ireland is the country’s biggest energy supplier. and when its latest unit rate reduction takes effect, Electric Ireland will have brought down household electricity prices by €107 since 2014.
Jim Dollard, Executive Director at Electric Ireland said this morning that: “Today’s announcement is good news for Electric Ireland’s 1.2 million residential electricity customers - it means the average annual residential bill for our customers will have reduced by more than €100 over the last 19 months.”
Cheapest standard unit rate
Electric Ireland will reduce Standard unit rates by almost a cent from 16.09 cent per kWh to 15.12 per kWh on 1st June. The price reduction will mean Electric Ireland offers the country’s cheapest standard electricity unit rate.
“We are pleased to see that Electric Ireland will be cutting prices, and today’s announcement is particularly welcome because it will have a positive effect on all of Electric Ireland's 1.2 million electricity customers,” said bonkers.ie Managing Director David Kerr today. “It will be interesting to see if other suppliers follow Electric Ireland’s suit and cut their prices too.”
Wholesale energy prices
Electric Ireland’s price reduction is a positive result of lower wholesale electricity prices which have been falling since 2014 and are currently around 35% lower than they were in April last year. Wholesale prices influence around 30% of customer bills and have allowed suppliers to introduce the largest new customer discounts since deregulation.
“I would encourage energy customers to take advantage of the huge savings that are also available to them through discounts and new customer offers. Right now an average customer can save €214 by switching to the cheapest electricity deal and dual fuel customers can save €376,” said bonkers.ie Managing Director David Kerr.
Electric Ireland customers on discount tariffs will also see prices come down because these discounts are linked to the Electric Ireland standard unit rate. In all, 1.2 million residential customers should benefit from today’s price cut announcement.
