Sir, – Residential consumers are encouraged to sign up for a contract for supply of electricity or gas for a 12-month period.
There is no certainty as to price for the consumer, but they are penalised if they leave the arrangement within 12 months, but their suppliers can increase the cost multiple times a year. So it is really a “one-sided” contract.
One would expect that , if you are in such a contract, the duration of the contract would be noted on your regular invoice, but no, you are never reminded about the end of your contract or contacted by your supplier to inform you that any discount you are getting will cease on a particular date.
Is it any surprise that only a small minority of residential consumers used these contracts prior to the current crisis?
Modernism in Irish Women’s Writing review: Great insights into work of female writers
Ireland’s best-kept secret: our climate is heaven
LIV defectors Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton should be cut adrift from the Ryder Cup
Darren’s abuse by the priest ended when he was 11. His story remains one of the worst I’ve heard
On a separate point, electricity consumers have recently been subjected to a spate of increases in the standing charge for electricity. This charge is, for some inexplicable reason, not regulated by the energy regulator.
The biggest supplier, Electric Ireland, charges between €303 and €484. Why, you may wonder, is there such an increase, particularly when one considers that in 2021 the charge was between €137 and €200? This does not depend on any increase in oil or gas prices.
Then there is the “rural surcharge”. It is charged to you if you are unlucky enough to have a DG2 coding on your electricity bill. This designation dates back to an ESB Networks document which the current regulator accepted as a temporary solution regarding how to classify urban and rural households in 2004. It is not based on your location but on whether your electricity supply comes in an overhead or underground cable.
Some 18 years later, it still applies, and Electric Ireland made full use of the lack of regulation of the standing charge by increasing it from €200 to €484 since 2021 for DG2 consumers.
I think the absurdity of all of this will dawn next week the Minister for Finance boasts about the fuel allowance, which is paid to those on social welfare. This allowance for many people will now barely cover the standing charge for electricity, as one supplier (Prepaypower) charges €713 in electricity standing charges.
This regulator needs immediate reform or abolition. – Yours, etc,
KEVIN MOYNIHAN, FCA
Forensic Accountant,
Killarney,
Co Kerry.
Sir, – Further to “The Irish Times view on air pollution: seeing through the smoke” (September 22nd), rest assured that most people do “get” the climate crisis, but allowance must be made for the particular circumstances driving this move.
With Putin’s invasion of Ukraine causing massive inflation, price-gouging by energy companies (evidenced by record profits) and the fact that household incomes have not risen while the price of everything else has, households must make savings where they can.
There is also the vicious circle at play. Heat-pumps and electric cars will increase electricity demand substantially, but that demand cannot be met because of Government policy on electricity generation, currently in thrall to somewhat zealous but unrealistic Green Party policies.
We will need large amounts of gas for many years into the future in order to generate sufficient electricity for heat pumps and electric cars until sufficient renewable generation and storage is in place, but the Green Party zealots (ie, not all of the Green Party) are controlling the debate, and leaving Ireland in a very precarious energy position, opposing the construction of LNG storage facilities on the basis that the LNG “might” come from a fracked source.
Nuclear energy is a virtually emission-free electricity source which could supply all our electricity for the next 50 years, until renewables and storage become completely viable, but again, zealotry prevents this from even being considered.
It should be noted that nuclear power has been operating successfully in Europe for many years, without major problem.
Because Green Party policy is preventing the adoption of these less polluting energy generators, until renewables actually become a viable and reliable reliable energy source, then households are left with no choice to use more polluting, but affordable and available, sources of heating this winter and beyond.
And that’s without even getting into the debate about how to pay for the cost of insulating a home to get it ready for a heat-pump or buying an expensive (and unaffordable for many) electric vehicle. – Yours, etc,
DAVID DORAN,
Bagenalstown,
Co Carlow.
Sir, – If I, and many others, use only the amount of gas and electricity we can afford for home heating this winter, how many of us will suffer ill-health or death from cold and damp?
To help avoid such an outcome, many of us will surely turn to the use of cheaper, more polluting fuels, such as wood, turf and coal in open fires.
“Saving the planet” will hardly be a priority for those who are struggling to save themselves. – Yours, etc,
TOM KELLY,
Broadstone,
Dublin 7.