Electricity costs should be cut - Falling fuel prices

One of the turning tides that has lifted nearly all boats is the fall in fuel prices.

Not so long ago it might have cost around €75 to fill a family car, now that figure is much closer to €60 — and it would be lower if such a great proportion of fuel prices were not fixed by Government.

However, electricity prices have not fallen despite the spectacular drop in world oil prices and remain amongst the highest in Europe.

This is so hard to understand that the Oireachtas Communications and Transport Committee is to ask the energy regulator and energy companies for an explanation. This seems appropriate as world market price increases are almost immediately passed to consumers even if the industry buys its base product — crude oil — many months or even years in advance. Such an inquiry is underway in Britain where the oil companies are suspected of not passing the benefits of lower prices to customers.

The Irish situation is further complicated by a doubling in recent months of the Public Service Obligation levy attached to all electricity bills. This money is used to pay subsidies to renewable energy — a question for another day maybe.

This is not the first, nor will it be the last time, this issue has been raised. Maybe it is time the energy regulator put a set of transparent disciplines in place, disciplines that would link the date of wholesale oil price changes to a date that consumers might expect to see a change in their energy costs.