Consumer: When will the new electricity credit arrive?

The new credit, which will be delivered to up to 2.3 million homes nationwide, is to be overseen by the energy regulator, the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU).

As part of Budget 2024, it was announced earlier this month that all electricity customers would receive a €450 credit to help tackle this winter’s energy bills.

The new credit, which will be delivered to up to 2.3 million homes nationwide, is to be overseen by the energy regulator, the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU), and will be rolled out by ESB Networks.

As it stands, the credit is for domestic electricity customers who are registered with an electricity supplier in the Republic of Ireland. It’s not available for gas customers or businesses. You don’t have to apply for the credit. If you’re a domestic customer, you’ll get it automatically.

It’s going to be paid in three instalments of €150 each. The first will hit in December, the second in January and the third in March,  Sarah Rigney of price comparison and switching site Bonkers.ie explains that you will see a credit line on your bill to the amount of €137.61—this is €150 excluding VAT at 9%.

She says: “The total payments will be €412.84 excluding VAT across the three instalments. The credit will have an identifier on your bill of either ‘Government Electricity Credit 1, 2 or 3’ or an abbreviated version of this depending on your supplier, e.g. ‘Govt. Credit 1’.”

The exact date you get your credit will depend on the date that your supplier normally sends your bill. Each supplier will have information on their website regarding when exactly the credit will show up.

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If your electricity bill comes to less than €150, then the balance of the credit will be carried over onto your next bill. You won’t lose any benefit because you’re not using enough electricity.

“ Many are concerned,” says Rigney, “that if they switch supplier over the coming months, they’ll miss out on some of the credits. Don’t worry though, you'll still get all the electricity credits you're entitled to. 

"If you switch to another provider after receiving one or two of the credits, the remaining credit you're due will be automatically applied to your bill by your new provider on your January and March bills in 2024. 

You won't lose out on any credit by switching and you don't need to stay with the same supplier to get all three credits.

When you switch, you'll be issued a closing bill from your previous supplier within around a week. Any credit on your account will be used to pay this final bill. If, however, you're still in credit, then the remaining amount will be refunded by the same method you used to pay your bills. You may however need to contact your current supplier to arrange this refund.

Any government credits that you are still due will automatically be issued to you by your new supplier.

Note too that t he credit applies to every domestic electricity account, so if you have more than one home in the Republic of Ireland with a domestic electricity supply, you will get the credit for each account.

The credit is also available to those using pre-pay meters. Pre-pay electricity customers will be contacted by their supplier by letter or email to explain how they can redeem the credit. Most pre-pay meters will accept the €150 credit in full.

Minister for Finance Michael McGrath confirmed a €450 energy credit in the Budget.

If you’re worried you haven’t received the credit, make sure you check the information on your supplier’s website about when the credit is due to be issued. If you haven’t received anything by the end of January, there’s clearly a problem, so get in touch with your supplier to find out what’s happened. You’ll find their contact details on the bill.

If you’re a tenant and you pay your landlord for your electricity, as opposed to paying the energy provider yourself, your landlord should pass each €150 credit onto you. If this becomes a cause of conflict, get in touch with the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) who will help settle the dispute.

Note too that if you have debt on your electricity account, the credit can be used to pay this off.

Almost as soon as the credit was announced, the scammers got busy trying to capitalise on it. A scam text is currently making the rounds asking people to click on a link in order to claim their credit. These texts link to a site that looks like gov.ie. It’s a scam. People are warned not to click on the link or enter any personal details.

To repeat: you don’t have to take any action to secure the credit. In the vast majority of cases, each of the €150 instalments will be deducted automatically from your bill, no matter who your supplier is.

The past two years have been extremely tough for energy customers in Ireland as gas and electricity prices reached record levels following the outbreak of war in Ukraine. It does, however, appear as if there’s finally some light at the end of the tunnel.

Over the past few weeks all the main energy suppliers have announced moderate price reductions of between 10% and 20% on average, which will come into effect from early November.

Yuno

The other piece of good news is the arrival onto the Irish market of a new provider last August.

Yuno Energy is a subsidiary of Prepaypower, the pay-as-you-go electricity provider which has been operating in Ireland for many years. Yuno offers a billpay service, has its own app and call centre. The new supplier currently offers electricity only but plans to offer gas at some stage next year.

On Yuno's variable tariff, the unit rate is now just 33.35 cent per kilowatt hour (kWh) including VAT. So if you use an average amount of electricity your bill would come to just over €1,666 a year. This makes it the cheapest electricity deal currently available in the entire market.

The price on Yuno's fixed tariff is slightly higher at 33.96 cent. As the name suggests, if you choose this plan, your rate won't go up or down for the year, regardless of what happens on wholesale energy markets. Note, however, that while your rate won’t change, your bill will continue to fluctuate depending on how much electricity you use.

If you're on standard rates with your current supplier, even after November's price reductions come into force, you'll be paying around 40 cent or more per kWh. This means you could potentially save a further €300 to €400 on average by switching to Yuno.