ESB price reductions 'within weeks'

THE COMMISSION for Energy Regulation is set to announce details of substantial price reductions from the ESB within the next two weeks, with the unit price of its electricity expected to fall by at least 10 per cent.

A spokesman for the regulator said a price review was currently under way and while he was not in a position to give an exact date for the publication of the new pricing structure, he said it would be “sooner rather than later, in the course of the next couple of weeks”.

Earlier this month Minister for Energy Eamon Ryan said he expected the regulator to recommend a double-digit electricity price reduction.

When contacted yesterday, the Minister’s spokeswoman was unable to say when the details of the new ESB prices would be presented to Mr Ryan, but she said the review was being conducted “as a matter of urgency”.

The news comes as the number of residential customers who have signed up to Bord Gáis Energy since last Wednesday, when the company launched its domestic service, climbed to over 33,000.

The new customers bring to 48,000 the number of residential electricity customers who have now signed up to Bord Gáis Energy.

It signed up 15,000 members of the Irish Farmers’ Association as part of a pilot scheme that began last August.

A Bord Gáis Energy spokeswoman said the company is now registering between two and three thousand new customers daily, with more than 90 per cent of the new business coming through the company’s website, www.thebigswitch.ie.

It has also doubled the number of staff it has employed to sign up new customers from 65 to 130.

Bord Gáis Energy is guaranteeing its residential customers a 10 per cent discount on ESB prices, whatever they fall to in the coming weeks, for the first year. It also says there will be discounts of at least 5 per cent in its second and third years of operation. There will also be a further 2 per cent discount for customers who either pay by direct debit or use natural gas. Those who do both will pay 14 per cent less than the ESB rate for the first year.

Bord Gáis Energy customers will begin getting bills from their new provider within the next two weeks, although the exact timeframe depends where the new subscribers are in their two-month ESB bill cycle, with someone at the beginning of that cycle having to wait at least eight weeks.

According to the regulator, its current price review, which was brought forward from the autumn at the request of Mr Ryan, is not directly connected with the shake-up in the market.

“The new prices that we approve won’t be a direct response to the Bord Gáis Energy moves and we will assess the prices for the ESB on their own merits,” a spokesman said.

The ESB said it welcomed the new competition.

Despite the numbers of people switching, the ESB still has a 97 per cent market share.