Power bills cut by 3% in the North

Northern Ireland households were today handed a 3% cut in their electricity bills.

Northern Ireland Electricity (NIE) said the reduction for 726,000 households reflected falling gas prices and would be introduced on April 1.

The price is now on a par with the average in Great Britain and the Continent and some 17% below those in the South.

However the cut could have been twice as much had it not been for the consumer having to pay for anti-pollution equipment being installed at the Kilroot power station in Antrim.

The 3% cut – which will reduce the average annual household electricity bill by £11 to £370 – is the equivalent of a cut of 6% in real terms once inflation is taken into account.

NIE’s 50,000 small and medium sized business customers , including farms, will also see their bills fall on average on 3%.

The power supplier expressed disappointment that it had not been possible to deliver a greater price reductions.

Spokesman Robin Greer said: “The new tariffs reflect lower wholesale gas prices offset by £40 million towards the cost of emissions cleaning equipment at the AES-owned Kilroot power station.”

He warned: “It is likely that consumers will be required to meet further costs associated with this work.”

US company AES won a high court battle to make the customer pay for the environmental work on Kilroot which would have been forced to close if it was not upgraded to meet new EU standards.

The revised tariff will remain valid until at least November when the domestic electricity market in the North will be opened to competition in conjunction with the introduction of the all-island wholesale electricity market.

Phoenix Natural gas is expected to shortly announce a cut in prices for their customers – also from April 1.

The reduced price has been approved by the regulator Ofreg, whose chief executive Iain Osborne said it was a welcome more.

He said: “Any downward movement on tariffs is a welcome development and this reduction should be particularly good news to households facing bill increases from other sources this year.”

He said he expected NIE and AES to work jointly to finalise the costs of the work at Kilroot as soon as possible to provide price stability as the province moves towards the single electricity market.