Irish electricity prices rank second highest in new survey

Irish electricity prices are among the highest in a newly published survey of charges in European and other countries.

British heating and electrical equipment supplier Boxt found that Irish people pay 18.99 pence sterling (20.89 cent) a kilowatt hour (KW/h) for energy.

This puts consumers in the Republic just behind those in the UK, who are charged 19.31p, but means Irish people pay more for electricity than residents of big European countries including Germany and Spain.

According to some industry calculations, the average Irish household uses 4,200 KW/h a year, or about 11.5 a day.

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Boxt’s survey notes that the price for electricity in the Republic is 53 per cent higher than the average of 10 countries it surveyed, which include big EU states Spain and Germany, as well as the UK, Switzerland, Japan and Australia.

However, it adds that the Republic’s natural gas prices are more affordable, at 5.21p for the equivalent of one KW/h.

Spain has the third highest electricity prices, at 18.51 a KW/h. Spanish authorities recently capped charges at €130 a megawatt hour (MW/h), the unit in which electricity is traded on wholesale markets, following a record rise to €210 MW/h.

Spanish gas prices are also among the most expensive, at 6.18p per KW/h, the research shows.

The Czech Republic is cheapest for electricity, at 12.69p, while Germany, one of the EU’s biggest economies, also ranks far behind the Republic at 13.58p, ranking it second lowest on the survey.

The Netherlands is third cheapest at 13.98p a KW/h.