Electricity customers to get almost €90 credited to bills this year

For pre-payment customers, they will have this figure deducted from their daily standing charge.

All domestic electricity customers will have €89.10 credited to their bills this year, the energy regulator has announced.

The Commission for Regulation of Utilities said the money will be paid in installments of €12.73 per month between March and September.

For pre-payment customers, they will have this figure deducted from their daily standing charge.

Customers do not need to take any action to avail of the credit, the CRU said, which is separate from the Government’s last €200 energy credit due in March.

This relief to the soaring energy bills facing households, with electricity bills approaching €2,000 a year, comes on foot of a decision around the Public Service Obligation (PSO) levy in the area of energy prices.

This levy is charged to all electricity customers to fund schemes designed by the Government to better integrate renewable energy generation into the system and to meet national targets.

When wholesale electricity prices are lower, it is due to lower gas prices. Renewable generators, which do not require gas, therefore require greater levels of support to provide electricity to the wholesale market. This usually results in a higher PSO payment by customers on their bills.

But, in this period of extremely high whole electricity prices, renewable generators are receiving greater revenues for the electricity they sell to the wholesale market.

As a result, no support from households is needed for these renewable generators for the year to September 2023.

CRU said that this means, under the terms of the scheme, this is to be paid back to customers.

New legislation underpinning this measure will be published by the Department of Environment in the coming weeks. In the meantime, CRU said it is working with ESB Networks and Eirgrid to ensure the payments can be made to customers from March 1.

CRU director of security of supply and wholesale John Melvin said: “This measure was announced as part of the 2022/23 PSO Levy decision due to the unprecedented global wholesale gas prices that we have seen in 2021 and 2022.

“Given that this was the first time we have experienced a negative PSO levy amount, the PSO payments will come as an additional relief to all electricity customers over the coming months.” 

The move come CRU follows an appearance of the energy regulator before an Oireachtas committee last week, where it faced questions over a Government policy whereby households helped to subsidise the energy bills of big business over a period of 12 years.

Furthermore, it emerged households were charged extra above and beyond that policy. ESB Networks said each household will receive a rebate to the tune of around €50 on foot of this overcharging.