Iberdrola adds €18 to electricity bills in third price hike this year

Energy supplier Iberdrola’s customers face monthly bill increases of up to €18 from October when the company will hike prices for the third time this year.

Iberdrola is adding 17.5 per cent to its electricity charges, increasing the average family's bill by €18.09 a month.

The company is also boosting gas prices by 17.5 per cent, meaning households will pay €12.81 extra on average for this fuel.

Iberdrola blamed rising wholesale energy prices and ongoing issues with the Irish electricity grid for the move.

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Sean O’Loughlin, head of Iberdrola Ireland said: “While we always try to keep prices as low as possible, we’ve seen rocketing wholesale energy prices in recent months.”

Added €420

Daragh Cassidy, spokesman for price comparison business, Bonkers.ie, calculated that Iberdrola's three increases this year had added €420 to the cost of electricity over 12 months and over €250 to annual gas bills.

“There seems to be a crisis in the energy market at present as rapidly increasing prices in the wholesale cost of energy are being passed on to consumers, coupled with a lack of electricity output due to power plants being down,” he said.