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Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 10 Nov 1998

Vol. 496 No. 3

Written Answers. - Electricity Prices.

Jan O'Sullivan

Ceist:

51 Ms O'Sullivan asked the Minister for Public Enterprise if she has recommended to the ESB that the rebalancing of tariff prices required between residential customers and industrial customers should be met from the ESB's own resources, thus ensuring that there is no increase in residential electricity prices; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [22667/98]

The ESB has estimated that domestic customers are currently being underchanged while commercial and industrial users are being overcharged. As the ESB faces competition in the future, it is necessary that tariffs adequately reflect underlying costs in order to ensure that there is a level playing field for all industry players.

In 1996 and 1997, the ESB implemented price increases averaging 2 per cent and 1½ per cent respectively. The implementation of those increases was used to initiate the process of rebalancing of tariffs. Accordingly, some customers faced minimal increases, no increases at all, or actual reductions in other cases.

The ESB is now returning profits which exceed by a significant margin the profits projected at the time the CCR was agreed and the price increases for 1996 and 1997 were approved by the Government. The question of effecting further re-balancing of tariffs from within its own resources is a matter for the ESB to consider.
The question of tariff rebalancing in the future will be one of the matters falling within the remit of the new commission for electricity regulation to be established under legislation which I propose to introduce in the House shortly. This will be the first phase of implementation of the EU electricity directive on the introduction of competition in the electricity market.
A second piece of legislation, to be introduced in 1999, will provide for the licensing by the commission of the monopoly public electricity supply as well as the activities of transmission and distribution. These licences will incorporate pricing controls which will be determined by the commission.
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