Energy customers switching off to switching over

The country’s gas and electricity customers are switching off to the idea of switching over.

Figures published by the Commission for Energy Regulation (CER) show that switching levels by utility customers declined sharply last year, with Bord Gáis suffering large losses in the number of residential customers for electricity and gas.

The figures reveal that 252,056 customers last year switched electricity provider — a decrease of 25.5% compared to 2011, and down by over 46% compared to two years ago.

Bord Gáis suffered the biggest loss in its customer base — down over 55,700 customers with Electricity Ireland, Airtricity, and other providers all picking up in excess of 17,000 net new customers each.

However, Electricity Ireland has been the largest net loser over the past three years since the electricity market was deregulated.

The state-owned firm — formerly the ESB — has lost almost 325,000 electricity customers since 2010, with Airtricity being the main beneficiary over the period, adding almost 275,000 new customers.

In the past three years, Bord Gáis has added a net increase of a little more than 22,000 elect-ricity customers.

The CER figures also show that switching rates among gas users fell last year — down 2.4% on 2011.

Almost 110,600 customers changed their gas supplier in 2012.

The biggest net gain last year was recorded by Electric Ireland which added over 50,000 new gas customers, largely at the expense of Bord Gáis which lost more than 47,500 customers.

Since 2010, the state-owned gas company has lost almost 210,000 customers, with Airtricity being the main beneficiary, picking up almost 110,000 net new customers, while Electric Ireland has added almost 79,999 additional net users.

However, Airtricity lost over 10,000 customers net last year as competition between the various providers intensified.

Flogas — which only competes in the gas market — recorded a net increase of more than 8,200 customers last year, and some 20,500 since 2010.

The CER is expected to publish results shortly which will show an unexpected increase in the number of disconnections last year, particularly inrelation to gas customers.