LOWER ENERGY BILLS AS OLDER POWER PLANTS ARE SHUT DOWN

AGEING and inefficient power plants are set to be shut down in a boost for Irish consumers’ pockets, energy researchers have revealed.

It is part of a shake-up in the Single Electricity Market which covers the North and the Republic.

Aurora Energy Research said customers should save on their bills as a result.

Senior project manager Hugo Batten said: “Continued efforts to make the market more competitive will ultimately be reflected in lower consumer energy bills.”

Aurora said many older plants face “mothballing” or closure as part of the change.

Since the integration of the Ireland and Northern Ireland electricity systems in 2007, capacity payments have been made to all power plants in a bid to ensure security of supply.

Payments were determined centrally and paid to plants based on their available capacity, regardless of how much they operated.

Following the competitive process and the procurement of a lower, more precise amount of capacity, system-wide capacity payment expenditure is expected to drop from €546million in 2018 to a maximum of €281million in 2019.

Aurora added: “Although some of these savings will be absorbed by other reforms, households will ultimately pay less.”