Meter users ‘will not be cut off’

Those with energy meters installed in their homes will not be cut off, Energy and Communications Minister Pat Rabbitt said yesterday.

He was commenting on the Commission for Energy Regulation’s annual report for 2011 which found almost 50 people a day had their electricity supply cut off because they could not pay their bills.

Last year, 17,794 people — 49 a day — had their supply cut off and the figure is up 7% on the 16,679 cases in 2010 and almost 100% higher than the 9,709 disconnections in 2009.

“Any customer who signs up to a pay plan or installs a pay-as-you-go meter will not be disconnected,” he said.

The minister, who was speaking before opening the Energy Action Conference in Dublin, said the take-up of the meters was slower than he would have expected and felt that a greater effort could be made at promoting them.

The conference, which is being held over two days in Dublin Castle, is studying the health impacts of fuel poverty.

Mr Rabbitte said he was very relieved that it had been a very mild winter and was pleased that the Affordability Energy Strategy, aimed at improving the heating efficiency of people’s homes, had been published.

The minister said it was the poor condition of houses in Ireland that was leading to fuel poverty.

“That is why there are 48 time-tabled actions set out in the Affordable Energy Strategy that is designed to bring our housing up to standard,” he said. “It is regrettable that the huge proportion of our housing programme built over the last 15 years is in many cases not up to standard and that’s our first focus,” he said.

Mr Rabbitte said the strategy would not fix everything, but a lot could be achieved to use the country’s energy resources more intelligently.

He pointed out that over 80,000 people had benefited from the Better Energy Warmer Homes Scheme to improve the energy efficiency and comfort of homes with low-income households.

Mr Rabbitte said that demand for the scheme had exceeded available resources and new eligibility criteria was being devised so it could be directed at where it was needed the most. He said the criteria, which will be published soon, would apply to all applications made from Jan 1 this year.

Mr Rabbitte said it was intended to move away from the current grant aid scheme towards a new “pay as you save” system after 2013.

The plan was to agree a financial model with the energy companies and the banks so people could fund the improvements in their homes from the savings that accrue from better insulation and other ways of making their homes energy-efficient.

The plan would see people repaying funds for insulating their homes to modern standards over a number of years.

The repayments, based on savings made through energy-efficiency, would form part of people’s energy bill.