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Back to Press Releases 19 December 2022

Electric Ireland Forgoes Profit to Help Residential Electricity Customers

  • Over 1.1 million existing Electric Ireland residential electricity customers will receive €50 credit
  • Electric Ireland Hardship Fund will increase to €5 Million

19th December 2022

Electric Ireland announced today (19th December 2022) that it is forgoing profit from its residential electricity business. A €50 credit will be applied to each existing Electric Ireland residential electricity customer and the Electric Ireland Hardship Fund will be increased by €2 million to €5 million.

Pat Fenlon, Executive Director, Electric Ireland said: “2022 has been a very challenging year for energy customers, primarily as a result of increases in international gas prices.  We are acutely aware of the pressures that customers face this Winter and, recognising these exceptional circumstances, Electric Ireland is forgoing profit from its residential electricity business. Electric Ireland’s residential customers can each expect to receive €50 credit in the New Year.”

“In addition, increasing the Electric Ireland Hardship Fund by €2 million to bring it to €5 million, will help ensure the fund is accessible to those most in need of support during the Winter months."

Mr. Fenlon ended the announcement with an assurance to customers, saying that: “We are committed to helping any of our customers who experience financial difficulty. As always, we encourage any Electric Ireland customer who has difficulty in paying their energy bill to engage with us and we will work with them to put a manageable payment plan in place.” 

Customers who are experiencing financial difficulty or having trouble paying their energy bills are asked to please call Electric Ireland at 1800 50 40 21 or email creditcontrol@electricireland.ie

ENDS/  

Notes to Editor: 

ESB’s generation and supply businesses are required by competition law to operate separately, so profits from ESB’s generation business cannot be used to offset costs incurred by Electric Ireland.   

How will the credit be applied to customer accounts? 

  • Existing Residential Electricity customers with Electric Ireland in the Republic of Ireland as of today, 19th December 2022 will receive this €50 credit 
  • The €50 credit is inclusive of VAT
  • Credit will be applied to Electric Ireland PAYG customer meters between 20th and 22nd December.
  • Bill-pay customers will see the credit appear on their online accounts from 2nd January and it will be applied to paper bills from 3rd January. 

Electric Ireland Hardship Fund

Since December 2020, Electric Ireland has committed €8 million in funds to help customers experiencing difficulty paying energy bills. 

  • The Electric Ireland Hardship Fund is now €5 million following the €2million increase announced today, 19th December 2022.
  • June 2022- Electric Ireland announced a €3 Million Hardship Fund
  • March 2021 - Electric Ireland provided a €2 Million Fund due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and increased energy costs.    
  • December 2020 - Electric Ireland gave €1 Million to 10,000 registered vulnerable customers.   
  • December 2022 - Electric Ireland has donated €200,000 to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul (SVP). 

Electric Ireland Customer Supports

  • A disconnection moratorium is in place for the coming months and will continue until the end of February for all residential customers, and until the end March 2023 for those who are registered as vulnerable customers, as mandated by the Commission for Regulation of Utilities. 
  • Electric Ireland engages with all residential customers who have trouble paying their bills in line with the voluntary Industry Energy Engage Code.  We encourage any Electric Ireland customer who has difficulty paying their energy bill to contact us and we will work with them to put in place a manageable payment plan.  We have thousands of these payment plans in place at present.  
  • Electric Ireland works with Fuel Poor customers who sign up to the Household Budget Scheme, or Industry Solution Prepayment Meter as a way to pay their energy bills and also apply a 5% discount.    
  • We provide several flexible payment options, including an Equaliser product that enables customers spread their energy costs in equal payments across the year or to take a payment holiday by agreeing a plan to pay their bills over eleven months instead of 12.

Each electricity supplier sets its own standard rate, and their quoted discounts are applied from that base.  Electric Ireland is committed to providing the best value to customers and currently offer the lowest standard unit rate in the market for electricity bills, with an available additional enduring discount rate of up to 8.5% for direct debit and e-billing customers, which reduces those unit rates further.      

Ends