PEOPLE considering using natural gas for heating will no longer have to pay a £630 connection fee if they live within 15 metres of a gas main.
A new marketing package announced yesterday by Bord Gais to win new customers claims the free connection policy will be a major incentive to use natural gas and will be particularly attractive to those who do not use much.
Under the plan, subscribers are not obliged to commit to a minimum consumption, and a single rate of payment will replace the four existing rate structures. A unit of gas will now cost 1.75p per unit. At the moment, high volume users are charged 2.303p per unit and low volume users 4.606p.
However, the new system introduces a £22 charge to residential customers every two months for the cost of supplying gas. This amounts to £132 per year. According to Bord Gais, the bimonthly charge replaces and simplifies the existing minimum consumption rate, which costs between £225 and £368 per annum depending on the household.
"It is a marketing system to get 100,000 customers onto the network and to make it easier for our customers to choose gas, said company spokeswoman Ms Miriam Farrelly. "For somebody just cooking on gas, who finds the £630 connection fee prohibitive, this could be just the thing they need".
She said the bills would stay more or less the same but could rise or fall by £1 or 50p in some cases. She said people currently connected to gas could stay with their current system of payment or could opt for the new method.
Ms Farrelly said the company would deal with queries from all customers considering changing to the new system. Those on the Supersaver rate and using less than 13,500 units or more than 24,000 units would be advised to check with their local office to see if they should change.
This also applies to customers in economy rate using less than 7,700 or more than 10,000 units; double discount rate customers using less than 5,500 units or more than 6,500, or reducing rate customers using more than 4,500 units.
Since the early 1990s, Bord Gais has installed natural gas in about 400 houses each week, and 28 per cent of Irish houses now have it. Since 1992, the company has converted 17,000 establishments to gas.