The Programme for Government commits to providing the reliable supply of safe, secure and clean energy in order to deliver a phase-out of fossil fuels. This means Ireland must deliver on its commitment to reach 70% renewable electricity by 2030 and that this must be planned and delivered in a cost-effective way that minimises costs to consumers. The SEAI report on Electricity and Gas Prices in Ireland (Jan – June) 2020 sets out the breakdown of electricity prices based on energy & supply, network costs, renewable taxes, capacity taxes, environmental taxes and other costs. Section 4.1.6 on page 40 of the report provides a breakdown of costs to non-households (business). Table 28 shows the breakdown of these costs for all EU member states in terms of cent per kilowatt hour. The report is available online at https://www.seai.ie/publications/Price-Directive-1st-Semester-2020.pdf
The SEAI, in its Energy in Ireland 2020 report, available at https://www.seai.ie/publications/Energy-in-Ireland-2020.pdf , shows in Table 22, Page 61, that electricity prices to Irish industry rose by 2% in real terms between 2015 and 2019. The fuel mix for electricity generation is one factor that has a key bearing on the variation in the price of electricity. I n the EU, Ireland has a high overall dependency for electricity generation on fossil fuels, at 69%.
Since 2015, energy prices in Ireland have increased by 6.7% in real terms, compared with an average increase of 1.6% in OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) Europe, and a 1.4% decrease in the United States over the same period based on data from the International Energy Agency (IEA). In 2019, overall energy prices in Ireland were 4.3% higher than in 2018, compared with an increase of 1.1% in OECD Europe and a 3.9% decrease in the US.