Some families face paying almost €85 extra a month for electricity and gas from October when Bord Gáis Energy plans to increase prices for its 513,000 household customers.
Bord Gáis on Friday became the fifth supplier in a week to announce price increases that some calculate will have added €1,300 a year to home energy costs since 2021.
The energy supplier said on Friday it would increase electricity charges by 34 per cent and gas prices by 39 per cent from October 2nd.
This could add €84.92 a month on average to typical bills where Bord Gáis supplies homes with both electricity and gas through dual-fuel deals, according to the company.
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Otherwise, Bord Gáis calculates that its increase will add €48.25 a month to the average home’s electricity bill and €43.80 a month to gas costs.
The company supplies 513,000 Irish homes. For commercial reasons, it does not say how many are gas only, how many only receive electricity or how many buy both.
The increase was announced just as Russia’s Gazprom said its key gas pipeline to Europe can’t reopen as planned on Saturday as a new technical issue has been discovered.
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A leak of oil was detected at a gas turbine that helps pump gas into the link. Gazprom now needs to fix the problem before the flows can restart, it said in a statement late Friday. There’s no indication how long that may take.
The announcement marks a dramatic escalation in Europe’s energy crisis. If the shutdown persists, it puts households, factories and economies at risk, weakening Europe’s hand as it backs Ukraine in the war against Russia.
Bord Gáis’s increase is its second this year and follows ESB subsidiary, Electric Ireland’s announcement that it would boost electricity and gas prices by 26.7 per cent and 37.5 per cent, affecting more than one million customers.
SSE Airtricity, Prepay Power and Community Power all announced increases in recent days.
Daragh Cassidy of price comparison website, Bonkers.ie, estimated that increases imposed since the beginning of last year have added €1,300 a-year to homes’ electricity bills and €1,100 for gas, pushing the annual total past €4,000.
Niall Farrell, ESRI senior researcher, told RTÉ Radio’s Morning Ireland that 43 per cent of Irish homes face fuel poverty as a result of recent price increases.
Fuel poverty is where a family spends more than 10 per cent of its income on energy. The institute predicted that the figure would 29 per cent in June, but subsequent hikes have worsened this.
Mr Farrell called for market reform or measures to ease pressure on homes over windfall taxes.
Managing director David Kirwan pledged that Bord Gáis would give 10 per cent of its full-year operating profits, to and Energy Support Fund, meant to aid customers struggling with electricity and gas bills. The company gave €1.25 million to this in April.
Bord Gáis’s owner, British giant Centrica, confirmed last month that operating profits at the Irish business grew 74 per cent in the first six months of this year to £33 million sterling (€39.4 million) from £19 million (€21.9 million) over the same period in 2021.
However, Bord Gáis’s Whitegate Power plant in Co Cork was out of action last year, which depressed the company’s profits. It earned a £30 million (€34.6 million) surplus in the first half of 2020, when the generating station was operating.
Eamon Ryan, Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, told TDs and Senators this week that the Government is considering social welfare and other measures to ease the impact of energy price increases on households.
Speaking at the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Environment and Climate Action, he said talks on this were ongoing with the Department of Finance. Government is considering a windfall tax among other steps.
