Savings of €55 under Bord Gáis cuts

Struggling homeowners can save almost €55 on their energy bills after Bord Gáis Energy confirmed a raft of gas and electricity price cuts.

The company confirmed it is cutting domestic gas prices by 3.5% and its electricity prices by 2.5% from March 16. The reduction in the gas price represents a saving of €29.47 on the average customer bill, while the reduction in the electricity price represents a saving of €24.91 on the average bill.

Bord Gáis Energy has 333,000 residential gas customers and 277,000 residential electricity customers all of whom should benefit from these price cuts.

Although wholesale gas prices are now more than 20% lower than they were a year ago, Bord Gáis Energy is the first gas supplier to announce a standard gas price cut. Electric Ireland introduced an electricity price cut of almost 2.5% in November.

The price cuts come as energy companies face mounting public criticism that the large drop in wholesale oil and gas prices is not being passed onto customers in the form of lower tariffs.

Welcoming the announcement, Energy Minister Alex White said he will meet with other energy suppliers to outline Government concern about the failure to pass on savings to customers.

Bord Gáis Energy is owned by the British energy giant Centrica, which also own British Gas. On Tuesday, British Gas announced that it would cut gas by 5% for all of their customers from February 27.

Chief operating officer of Bord Gáis Energy Dave Kirwan said the price cuts were being offered as a result of an on-going review of reduction in wholesale energy costs.

“With the reduction in international wholesale energy costs, we have the opportunity to drop our prices in both gas and electricity and we are happy to be able to do so. We will continue to monitor wholesale and other costs and should further savings occur we will seek to reflect that in our prices,” he said.

The company confirmed that customers who signed up to Bord Gáis Energy’s new fixed rate products in gas and electricity would also benefit from the reductions.

Managing director of price comparison website bonkers.ie, David Kerr, said the cuts will save money for thousands of households.

“This is the first time we’ve seen a supplier announce a gas price cut despite falling wholesale prices, so hopefully we’ll see other suppliers follow Bord Gáis’s lead,” said Mr Kerr.

“Bord Gáis Energy’s sister company British Gas announced a price cut earlier this week, so I’m happy to see that Irish customers are receiving price reductions too.”