Energy suppliers PrepayPower and Pinergy have announced they are to cut their prices from April 1st.
PrepayPower is decreasing its electricity unit rates and standing charges resulting in a saving of €136 per year (6.7 per cent) for an average customer. An average gas bill will be reduced by €111 per year, or 6.6 per cent.
The group, which is Ireland’s largest pay-as-you-go energy provider, has about 180,000 electricity customers and 60,000 gas customers.
Based on average annual usage the reduction will mean a €247 saving for a typical dual fuel customer.
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Pinergy’s latest price reduction will result in an 8.4 per cent decrease to the typical household cost.
It is the group’s third price decrease to its standard residential electricity prices in the past 13 months. The move follows previous decreases in March and October 2023.
The saving is equivalent to €183.12 annually, including VAT, in an estimated annual bill, based on a domestic customer using typical consumption per annum on standard tariffs.
Most energy providers have been cutting prices in response to the drop in wholesale electricity prices. Pinergy has about 27,000 customers in the Irish market.
PrepayPower provides pay-as-you-go services that enable customers to top up regularly in small amounts at times convenient to them.
The company employs over 400 people and provides app and smart meter based services that helps customers to control usage, save costs and avoid surprising large bills.
This is the second decrease that the company has made in recent months, following a 13.5 per cent decrease in gas unit rates and a 12.8 per cent reduction in electricity unit rates cut in November.
The group’s chief executive Cathal Fay said: “We are delighted to be able to announce this latest decrease for our customers today.
“We continue to provide competitive pay-as-you-go rates to our customers, including the lowest electricity standard unit rate in the market, after recently announced price reductions by other suppliers, together with our app that allows the customer to control costs and save.”
Pinergy chief executive Enda Gunnell said: “We are now pleased to announce a third decrease in just over a year for all our residential customers as wholesale electricity pricing has further eased in recent months.
“However, inflated and often volatile electricity markets mean the energy crisis is not going away.
“As a country, we need to accelerate the transition to cleaner, lower cost renewable energy for all.
“As part of the energy transition, we are pleased to be able to hold our 25c per kWh microgeneration payments for customers who are exporting excess electricity from solar panels and other micro generation technologies.”
Mr Gunnell added this was “a great example of encouraging households to participate in the energy transition and be rewarded for their investment for cleaner energy”.
“We need to see more of these incentives being introduced to accelerate the transition to cheaper, renewable energy,” he said.
Wholesale electricity prices fell 68 per cent last year as energy costs continued to decline from their 2022 peak, Central Stastics Office (CSO) figures show.
The faster-than-expected softening of headline inflation in the Republic and across the euro zone has been driven – almost entirely – by falling energy prices.
The CSO’s latest figures show electricity prices fell by 27.6 per cent in December alone and were 67.8 per cent lower year on year. The agency’s energy products index was down by 22.7 per cent since November 2023 and was down by 60.3 per cent when compared with December 2022.
Energy prices, which had been on an upward surge in the wake of Covid, spiked after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, reaching a peak in August that year.
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