Wholesale electricity prices 40% lower in March on last year
New figures from the Central Statistics Office show that wholesale electricity were 40.3% lower in March of this year compared to the same time last year.
The CSO said that wholesale electricity prices in March 2024 were also 76.6% lower than in August 2022 when prices were at their highest since the CSO began looking at the figures in 2015.
However, wholesale electricity prices rose by 2.4% in March compared to February.
Commenting on today’s figures, Daragh Cassidy, head of Communications at Bonkers.ie, said that wholesale prices are now a fraction of what they were at the height of the energy crisis in the autumn of 2022.
But he said that despite the recent large falls, wholesale prices are still around double pre energy crisis levels.
“Nevertheless, given where prices currently are, it’s highly likely we’ll see another round of price cuts in the second half of the year of between 10-20%. This comes on the back of two rounds of price cuts introduced since last September that have seen energy bills fall by around 20-25% already,” Mr Cassidy said.
He also advised that anyone who is not in contract with their energy supplier should seriously consider switching to another supplier.
Dublin has fifth highest electricity prices across 33 European cities
Consumers in Dublin have had the fifth highest electricity prices on average of 33 capital cities across Europe since September 2021, a new analysis has found.
Only Great Britain, Denmark, Germany and Italy have had higher prices over the three-year period.
The Electricity Association of Ireland’s (EAI) research, which uses monthly data contained in the Household Energy Price Index (HEPI) published by the Austrian and Hungarian regulators, also shows European counterparts raised their prices earlier and higher than Irish suppliers.
This, the EAI said, shielded Irish customers from price volatility by smoothing out rapid increases in price over a longer time period.
The conclusions are based on end-user data, but do not factor in electricity credits or other payments given by suppliers to customers.
Irish electricity customers are receiving €450 credit on their bills this winter, delivered in three instalments of €150.
“Factoring in the credit, and assuming its contribution to 57% of the electricity bill for the month, based on typical consumption patterns, the cost of electricity is more than halved, at €16.29c/kwh,” said EAI energy policy analyst Jason Herbert.
“This may be lower or higher, depending on electricity usage. Similarly, in winter of 2022/2023, Irish electricity customers received €600 in electricity credits, which had a significant impact on the cost felt by customers over this period,” he added.
HEPI data shows that in Dublin the average end-user price of electricity was the fourth most expensive of the 33 European cities analysed, with a price including taxes of €37.72cent/kWh.
This was cheaper than London, Prague and Berlin, although greater than the EU average of €24.25cent/kWh.
