Energy credits mean electricity bills fall for typical household

The median, or typical, residential electricity bill fell by €359, to €909 last year after the Government introduced subsidies as a response to a substantial increase in electricity prices during the year, Central Statistics Office figures show.

This was a decline of 28pc in the typical household electricity bill.

Residential electricity customers received two payments of €200 each to offset their 2022 electricity bill costs.

Typical domestic gas bills shot up by €232 last year when compared with 2021. No energy credits were paid for gas costs.

The CSO figures show that the median residential bill for gas rose by 31pc, or €232, to €972 last year.

The typical costs for electricity and gas produced by the CSO are lower than those published by the energy regulator, the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU), as the two organisations are using different figures for the typical annual consumption of electricity and gas for households.

Last month the main players, Electric Ireland, Bord Gáis, Energia and SSE Airticity, cut their electricity and gas prices for consumers.

It comes after wholesale energy prices had been falling for months.

Price cuts of between 10pc and 20pc have been announced by the bigger suppliers.

Smaller players have been even more aggressive in their price cutting.

Pinergy, has announced two electricity price reductions this year. Flogas announced a 30pc reduction in its electricity and natural gas unit rates and it is also reducing its standing charges, but its rates were higher than its rivals.

And new player Yuno Energy is offering a new fixed rate that is 5pc cheaper than its previous lowest rate. It said the new rate will mean its offering will be €430 below the standard rate offers from other suppliers.

However, energy prices this winter will still remain at historically high levels.

In the October Budget it was announced that there will be three electricity credits for households totalling €450.

The first credit instalment of €150 is expected to start to be available from December 1, the second on January 1 and third on March 1.

The CSO said the percentage of households paying less than €1,500 per year for electricity increased last year.

Almost eight in 10 households were paying less than €1,500 in their annual electricity bill, the statisticians said.

The percentage of households paying less than €1,500 for gas reduced from 92pc to 79pc last year.

The highest median residential electricity bill costs by county in 2022 were in Kildare at €1,043, Meath at €1,027 and Wicklow at €1,007.

The lowest were seen in Donegal at €746, Leitrim at €768 and Mayo at €826.

Daragh Cassidy of price comparison site Bonkers.ie said the typical electricity bill last year only fell thanks to the payment of two €200 electricity credits during the year.

“However, if we excluded these credits the median electricity bill would only have risen marginally, according to the CSO, which is hugely surprising as electricity prices almost doubled between the start of 2022 and the end of the year,” he said.

This might suggest households worked hard to reduce their electricity consumption, or perhaps there’s a quirk in how the data has been compiled as the annual cost figure for electricity seems quite low, Mr Cassidy said.

People switching provider may also have led to people spending less on electricity in 2022 compared with 2021, he said.