Householders will be hit with another hike in gas and electricity bills after an energy company raised prices for a THIRD time this year.
SSE Airtricity is increasing the price of its electricity by 9.4% and the price of its gas by 9.8% from 1 December.
That means the latest increase will add around €115 a year to the average household’s annual electricity bill and €86 to the average annual gas bill.
Around 250,000 electricity customers and 85,000 gas customers will be impacted.
The supplier last increased its prices in September, when it upped the price of its electricity by 10.6% and its gas by 10.7%.
When all this year’s price hikes are taken into account, households will be paying around €300 extra a year for their electricity and €200 more for their gas.
SSE Airtricity chief Klair Neenan said: “The decision to increase our prices has not been taken lightly. We made every effort to delay this announcement as long as we could but unfortunately, as we have seen with other suppliers, sustained increases in wholesale energy costs are driving consumer prices upward.”
There have been over 30 price hike announcements from Irish energy suppliers since the start of the year. And some suppliers have raised prices four times.
Daragh Cassidy, spokesman for bonkers.ie encouraged bill-payers to shop around.
He said: “This is SSE’s third price increase of the year and to be honest, more increases can’t be ruled out.
“As we move into the darker and colder months when energy demand typically soars, many households will feel the pinch.”
He added: “A lot of our electricity is still generated from burning coal and gas in particular. The price of these fossil fuels collapsed at the height of the pandemic but has increased significantly in recent months partly due to supply chain bottlenecks because of Covid. For example the price of gas has shot up by over 200% in recent weeks.
“To make things worse, two large power plants have until recently been out of action for maintenance reasons: the Whitegate plant in Cork and the Huntstown plant in Dublin. Together these usually supply around 15% or more of our electricity. However the Huntstown plant just recently came back on stream.
“Finally, the level of wind output has been far lower than usual this year too, leading many to talk of a ‘wind drought’.
“So we have skyrocketing fuel prices, increased demand as the economy recovers, at the same time as we’re having a supply crunch. It’s all created the ‘perfect storm’ for price increases.
“However, price increases of this magnitude and frequency are unsustainable.
“Households are in for a very difficult and expensive winter trying to heat and light their homes.
“Recent announcements in the Budget to help those in fuel poverty may not go far enough. Indeed, many outside of the social welfare net might struggle this winter too so wider measures, like a temporary reduction in VAT for everyone, may be needed.”
