We need your help now
Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
By continuing, you are indicating that you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
Updated 10.23am
CHANGES TO THE Irish electricity market could result in higher and less transparent prices for consumers, researchers have warned.
The market is currently kept under control through the work of the Commission for Energy Regulation (CER), which monitors the bids of electricity generators and minimises the impact of the dominant firm – the ESB.
However, new EU regulations coming into force in 2017 will impact on its ability to ensure competition in the market, the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) has warned.
In a research note published today, the think-tank noted that Ireland’s market differs from its EU counterparts.
Muireann Lynch, one of the authors, said:
“These include a concentrated market with a dominant firm, high levels of wind generation, low levels of interconnection with Great Britain, which is in turn poorly interconnected with the rest of Europe, and low levels of advance trading between generators and supply companies.
Advance trading and interconnection are two of the main ways of ensuring competition in electricity markets, but their impact is severely limited in the Irish case.
Lynch said the new market conditions will not lend themselves to careful monitoring of the ESB, referred to as the ‘legacy monopolist’.
Changes being made to the ‘fixed cost of generators are compensated’, Lynch added, means it will be ‘ unlikely that there will be a satisfactory way of ensuring a competitive outcome… unless there is regulation of all the bids made by the dominant firm’.
OneBigSwitch.ie has welcomed the research note, and called on the Government and CER to heed the warnings.
Sarah Ryan, Director of Campaigns, said:
Before tax is applied, Irish consumers are already paying the highest rate per kWh for electricity across the EU, any further changes that will further inflate this difference needs to be seriously addressed.
“Irish consumers cannot be expected to shoulder the burden of a new market system when we already pay the highest rates for electricity as it stands.”
All electricity suppliers were called on by CER to reduce their prices, following a fall in global oil and gas prices.
Published at 7.58am
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
“were called on by CER to reduce their prices, ”
“Called on”
CER.
Commission for Energy Regulation.
High sounding titles.
Useless, toothless quango “regulators”
Good at rubber stamping increasing prices.
Unable to enforce reductions.
Is this the same CER that granted a price increase to the energy companies without being asked? Irish regulation is a contradiction in terms.
Back in 2009 Simon Coveney asked in DE-
notes the decision of the Commission for Energy Regulation (CER) during July 2008 to grant electricity and gas price increases of 17.5% and of 20% respectively, due to spiralling oil prices at $147 a barrel;
is disappointed at the failure to reduce energy prices in the most recent review of prices as oil has collapsed by over 80% to approximately $40 a barrel;
notes that approximately 10% of every electricity bill is directly attributable to energy companies being compelled by the regulator to factor in the cost of carbon (emitted during generation) into their electricity pricing, despite the fact that they themselves are not currently required to pay for carbon allowances for emissions (until 2013 when a carbon trading market will function across the EU);
Shane Mac Diarmada is not only ignorant, he is arrogant.
Regulators of a market do not set prices. You would know that if you knew anything about economics.
More scaremongering from Eirgrid…they must be applying to bord pleanala to carve up the country some more soon.
And yet no mention of them in the article?
Staring at my plug socket now. Let me know when someone else starts staring at theirs so I can stop and get a cup of tea. Strong shift work and we’ll beat this price rise lads.
Lets watch them carefully so.
Second cheapest electricity in europe before regulation…. regulator appointed and prices go up to make higher profits for subsidised private companies. Nice
More wind mills = Bills goes up
Someone has to subsidies those useless and ugly things
Never mind if they wreck environment and rural communities. We need them you ve been told !
We pay more in PSO subsidies to subsidize rural electricity than goes to windmills. They only pay a small fraction of the additional cost to provide electricity to extremely rural houses.
Plus we have done this for decade after decade.
It’s a tiny payback to a have a few windmills.
I be no problem with some wind mill farms if it s done in a sensible manner and as part of a mix renewable energy plan. What I m against is the steam rolling of those at the minutes without any considerations just because few fat cats have vested interests and / or get fat brown envelopes.
Here are 3 facts that disturb me :
1) France Germany and England have a segregation zone of 1.5 km between wind mills and residences yet Ireland has 500 m which isn’t much considering the size and noise of those monsters.
2) abp is accepting projects even when their own inspectors told them it doesn’t make sense
3 ) when a wind mill company applies for planning permission they produce an impact statement , those are put together by “independent expert ” employed and paid by those wind mill company ? How is that suppose to be fair and independent, I might be naive but I feel the results of such “independent” researches might go only one way
That’s because Irish Water will be billing them more than they are paying now.
That doesn’t even make sense.
Electric Ireland uses huge amounts of fresh water.
The discounted rate they get at the moment will be gone soon.
When the discount is gone they will be paying a fortune to produce electricity.
Of course we will have to pick up the cost there.
That is the sense that I think you are missing?
Did they stick a water meter into Ardnacrusha dam?
No jimmy,
That would be very silly wouldn’t it.
Why don’t you Google how coal, turf, oil electricity power stations work.
You will see all you need to know.
Water for cooling turbines is drawn directly in from rivers, lakes, etc.
Electric Ireland is one of a half dozen electricity supply companies and there are another dozen electricity generators. You’ve no idea how the market works in Ireland do you ?
Also none of them pay a penny to Irish water for the water they use in their plants. The provide the water themselves. So they don’t get a discounted rate on water.
You are complete spoofer and a blatant liar. Say sorry for lying.
There is only one electricity power station company in Ireland. Plenty of so called suppliers. And they will be charged for there use of water in the future, regardless if they take it out of a river or lake.
Bord na Móna own Edenderry power station, so that makes two companies.
That power station is basically a subcontracted station. Like so many others. There is only one power grid.
Only one real power supplier.
And yet the deluďed raucous mases turn up in their NIMBY droves when there is the mere mention of;
wind:farm;solar:green;
Thank you for allowing me read perhaps the most vacuous comment on the journal today.
Btw it’s ‘masses’ not ‘mases’.If your attempt at insulting others is to succeed you have to be above reproach.
Its ok, no one takes “Ruth” seriously anymore, not even the trolls.
Well of course she misspelled a word so obviously nothing she says can be taken seriously.
No Neal the incorrect spelling is amusing considering the contempt she levels at the ‘masses’.
But wind was going to make electricity cheaper or so eamonn Ryan says
Use precise geolocation data. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Store and/or access information on a device. Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development.
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work.
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then these services may not function properly.
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not be able to monitor our performance.
Cookies, device or similar online identifiers (e.g. login-based identifiers, randomly assigned identifiers, network based identifiers) together with other information (e.g. browser type and information, language, screen size, supported technologies etc.) can be stored or read on your device to recognise it each time it connects to an app or to a website, for one or several of the purposes presented here.
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times an ad is presented to you).
Information about your activity on this service (such as forms you submit, content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (for example, information from your previous activity on this service and other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (that might include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present advertising that appears more relevant based on your possible interests by this and other entities.
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on your advertising profiles, which can reflect your activity on this service or other websites or apps (like the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects.
Information about your activity on this service (for instance, forms you submit, non-advertising content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (such as your previous activity on this service or other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (which might for example include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present content that appears more relevant based on your possible interests, such as by adapting the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find content that matches your interests.
Content presented to you on this service can be based on your content personalisation profiles, which can reflect your activity on this or other services (for instance, the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects. This can for example be used to adapt the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find (non-advertising) content that matches your interests.
Information regarding which advertising is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine how well an advert has worked for you or other users and whether the goals of the advertising were reached. For instance, whether you saw an ad, whether you clicked on it, whether it led you to buy a product or visit a website, etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of advertising campaigns.
Information regarding which content is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine whether the (non-advertising) content e.g. reached its intended audience and matched your interests. For instance, whether you read an article, watch a video, listen to a podcast or look at a product description, how long you spent on this service and the web pages you visit etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of (non-advertising) content that is shown to you.
Reports can be generated based on the combination of data sets (like user profiles, statistics, market research, analytics data) regarding your interactions and those of other users with advertising or (non-advertising) content to identify common characteristics (for instance, to determine which target audiences are more receptive to an ad campaign or to certain contents).
Information about your activity on this service, such as your interaction with ads or content, can be very helpful to improve products and services and to build new products and services based on user interactions, the type of audience, etc. This specific purpose does not include the development or improvement of user profiles and identifiers.
Content presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type, or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times a video or an article is presented to you).
With your acceptance, your precise location (within a radius of less than 500 metres) may be used in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
With your acceptance, certain characteristics specific to your device might be requested and used to distinguish it from other devices (such as the installed fonts or plugins, the resolution of your screen) in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Your data can be used to monitor for and prevent unusual and possibly fraudulent activity (for example, regarding advertising, ad clicks by bots), and ensure systems and processes work properly and securely. It can also be used to correct any problems you, the publisher or the advertiser may encounter in the delivery of content and ads and in your interaction with them.
Certain information (like an IP address or device capabilities) is used to ensure the technical compatibility of the content or advertising, and to facilitate the transmission of the content or ad to your device.
Information about your activity on this service may be matched and combined with other information relating to you and originating from various sources (for instance your activity on a separate online service, your use of a loyalty card in-store, or your answers to a survey), in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
In support of the purposes explained in this notice, your device might be considered as likely linked to other devices that belong to you or your household (for instance because you are logged in to the same service on both your phone and your computer, or because you may use the same Internet connection on both devices).
Your device might be distinguished from other devices based on information it automatically sends when accessing the Internet (for instance, the IP address of your Internet connection or the type of browser you are using) in support of the purposes exposed in this notice.
The choices you make regarding the purposes and entities listed in this notice are saved and made available to those entities in the form of digital signals (such as a string of characters). This is necessary in order to enable both this service and those entities to respect such choices.
have your say