Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 29 September 2010
1571 Deputy Leo Varadkar asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the reason reducing or maintaining competitive energy prices is not one of the eleven energy policy strategies elaborated in the Annual Output Statement of 2010; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33168/10]
Amharc ar fhreagraBoth the Statement of Strategy and the Annual Output Statement for my Department set out that the ensuring of "a fully sustainable, secure and competitive energy market underpinned by diverse energy sources, energy efficiency and robust infrastructure" is a key high level goal for the energy sector. This is underpinned by a programme goal "to enhance the competitiveness of energy markets". Implicit in the pursuit of this goal is the objective of reducing or maintaining competitive energy prices whilst also needing to ensure sustainability and security of supply. One of the eleven key strategies to which the Deputy refers, picks up, inter alia, on this in seeking to promote competition.
1572 Deputy Leo Varadkar asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the extent to which electricity prices for domestic, small business and large energy users exceed average prices in the eurozone in nominal terms; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33190/10]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) collects and publishes energy statistics to support policy analysis and development in line with national needs and international obligations.
The latest available comparative data from Eurostat is published by SEAI in their report "Electricity & Gas Prices in Ireland", published in May 2010. The data contained in this report covers the last six months of 2009.
Table 9 on page 19 of that report shows the average electricity price paid by all categories of business in Ireland per unit of electricity consumed and compares those figures with the Eurozone average. This table is reproduced below:
|
Category of Electricity Consumption |
Cost — € per Kwh |
Relative to Euro Area Average |
|
Band IA (Consumption < 20Mwh) |
0.169 |
97% |
|
Band IB (20Mwh < Consumption < 500Mwh) |
0.141 |
112% |
|
Band IC (500Mwh < Consumption < 2,000Mwh) |
0.118 |
111% |
|
Band ID (2,000Mwh < Consumption < 20,000Mwh) |
0.097 |
102% |
|
Band IE (20,000Mwh < Consumption < 70,000Mwh) |
0.089 |
104% |
|
Band IF (70,000Mwh < Consumption < 150,000Mwh) |
0.079 |
103% |
Electricity prices for small businesses are 3% below the Eurozone average. Electricity prices rise above the Eurozone average for other categories of business, but these figures still represent a significant improvement in Ireland's electricity price competitiveness compared to 2008.
SEAI has collected and submitted to Eurostat the electricity cost figures for the first six months of 2010 and these show that Irish electricity costs have continued to fall for all categories of business. In fact, the figures show that electricity prices for business have fallen by up to 45% in the past eighteen months. These will be published by SEAI as soon as the relevant comparative data from Eurostat becomes available and are also provided below: Business Electricity prices as at 30/06/2010
|
Category of Electricity Consumption |
Cost — € per Kwh |
Change in 18 months to Jun 2010 |
|
Band IA |
0.157 |
-10% |
|
Band IB |
0.137 |
-12% |
|
Band IC |
0.112 |
-21% |
|
Band ID |
0.084 |
-34% |
|
Band IE |
0.076 |
-34% |
|
Band IF |
0.056 |
-44% |
Table 16 on page 28 of the SEAI report shows that Band DD represents 53% of the domestic electricity market. For the average Irish domestic electricity consumer Irish prices are below the Eurozone average by 2%. The figures do not include purchasing power parities. If these are included the average Irish domestic electricity consumer is paying 12% less than the Eurozone average, as illustrated by table 19 on page 30 of the SEAI report.
Almost 70% of domestic consumers may still avail of significant discounts simply by switching their electricity supplier. This is also true for over 50% of small to medium enterprises. It is important that all customers who are concerned about energy costs should shop around and take advantage of the value and choice available in the competitive electricity market. Customers can also help mitigate energy costs by taking advantage of a wide range of Government-supported energy efficiency programmes.
Given Ireland's dependence upon imported fossil fuels, the urgent need to fund much needed network investment, the size of our market and low population density it is a significant achievement that our electricity prices for domestic consumers are below the Eurozone average, while those for business are close to the average and below many of our neighbours and competitors.
