ESB accused of hiking charges by backdoor

THE ESB has been accused of hiking electricity prices by the backdoor after increasing standing charges on its most popular tariffs.

The ESB cut the unit price of electricity for householders from January by 7.7%, but hiked its yearly standing charges by as much as 5%.

Despite ESB’s claims that bills are down 5.4% on average compared with last year, householders on the nightsaver tariff have seen bills fall by as little as 3.2% while electricity costs on the popular night storage heating tariff have fallen by less than 1% a year (equal to 50c).