Double delight for customers as two energy firms cut prices

IRELAND’S two pay-as-you-go energy suppliers both announced price cuts yesterday, making them the latest in the current price war to drop tariffs.

Prepay Power – the country’s largest pay-as-you-go company, with 180,000 customers for electricity and 60,000 for gas – is cutting €247 off average dualfuel bills from April 1.

Also, Pinergy, which supplies electricity only to its 30,000 customers, is cutting €183 off the average annual bill.

Daragh Cassidy, of utility price comparison site Bonkers.ie, said: ‘Pinergy and Prepay Power are the last of the main energy suppliers to announce a price cut this year. Although the price cuts are welcome, it still leaves Pinergy’s

electricity prices around 80% above the levels they were at before the energy crisis kicked off. It’s a similar story with Prepay Power.’

He went on: ‘It’s likely we’ll see another round of price cuts of between 10 and 20% in the second half of the year, which should help alleviate pressure on households. However, electricity prices in particular may end up settling significantly above the levels we’ve been accustomed to in recent years.’

Prepay Power is cutting its electricity rates and standing charges for a saving of €136 per year for the average customer, or 6.7%. The average gas bill is being reduced by €111 per year, or 6.6%. It is the second decrease the company has made in recent months, following a 13.5% drop in gas rates and a 12.8% cut in electricity prices in November.

Prepay Power CEO Cathal Fay said: ‘We continue to provide competitive payas-you-go rates to our customers, including the lowest electricity standard unit rate in the market.’

Pinergy’s cut, from April 1, will be its third in 13 months. Chief executive Enda Gunnell said: ‘As a country, we need to accelerate the transition to cleaner, lower-cost renewable energy for all.’ The company is also freezing its ‘payback’ rate for those with solar panels at 25c per kWh.