Irish households paying fourth highest electricity prices in EU

Irish households are paying the fourth highest electricity prices in the European Union, according to new figures from the bloc's statistical agency.

Electricity prices in the second half of 2020 were highest in Germany (€0.3006 per kWh), Denmark (€0.2819 per kWh) and Belgium (€0.2702 per kWh), according to Eurostat. Ireland was next in line at €0.2616.

The lowest electricity prices were in Bulgaria (€0.0982 per kWh), Hungary (€0.1009 per kWh) and Estonia (€0.1291 per kWh). The price of electricity for residential consumers in Germany was more than three times as high as the price in Bulgaria.

The EU average price in the second half of 2020 was €0.2134 per kWh.

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Ireland was also among the member states that saw the largest increases for non-household customers from the second half of 2019 to the same period of 2020.

Non-household users are defined as medium-sized consumers with an annual consumption between 500 MWh and 2,000 MWh.

For these consumers electricity prices in the second half of 2020 were highest in Germany (€0.1818 per kWh) and Italy (€0.1514 per kWh). The lowest prices were in Sweden (€0.0588 per kWh) and Denmark (€0.0686 per kWh). The EU average price was €0.1254 per kWh.

These prices fell in 12 member states. The biggest decreases were recorded in Cyprus (-24.2 per cent) and Sweden (-15.3 per cent), followed by Italy (-6.3 per cent).

It increased in the 15 other member states. By far the largest increases was recorded in Poland (30.1 per cent), almost double that in the Netherlands (15.1 per cent), while there were increases of 10 per cent or more in Germany (13.1 per cent) and Ireland (11.9 per cent).