Dubliners pay more for electricity than the residents of all other European Union capitals, according to a European report showing families in the Irish city pay €1,600 a year for power.
Irish energy suppliers increased prices by €8 to €11 per month for electricity in recent weeks as global oil and gas prices soared following the US-Israeli attacks on Iran.
New figures from a Europe-wide report show Dublin is the most expensive capital in the EU for domestic electricity prices, with higher charges than those in leading cities such as Paris or Rome.
Dublin families pay an average of 38.52 cent a kilowatt hour (KW/h, the unit in which power is sold) for their electricity, according to May’s Household Energy Price for Europe index.
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That translates into bills of close to €1,600 a year or almost €270 per bill, which are issued every two months by most suppliers, based on industry calculations of average Irish household electricity use.
The index includes the standing charges paid to support the national grid and distribution networks that deliver electricity to homes.
It would not include increases announced last week by suppliers ESB subsidiary Electric Ireland and Yuno Energy, which will apply to customers’ bills from July.
In Europe as a whole, Dublin trails only Swiss capital Bern – which is outside the EU – where homes pay 39.19 cent a KW/h.
It is more expensive than Brussels, the EU’s administrative hub, where citizens pay 35.44 cent a KW/h.
Dublin’s electricity is also more expensive than Paris, where energy costs 25.44 cent a KW/h, or Rome, where residents pay 31.02 cent.
The EU average for domestic electricity is 25.35 cent a KW/h, according to the monthly index, published by energy regulators in Austria and Hungary.
Commenting on the figures, Lynn Boylan, Sinn Féin MEP, blamed the Government’s continued support for data centres, for the fact that many Dubliners struggled with their electricity bills.
“This Government continues to roll out the red carpet with policy announcement after policy announcement for data centres, while struggling households are told to wait,” Boylan argued.
Data centres consume about a fifth of Irish electricity, a figure that could reach 30 per cent by the next decade.
Alan Dillon, Minister of State, recently told the Dáil that householders do not subsidise data centres.
He added that large industrial users of electricity pay a higher share of network costs.
Daragh Cassidy of price comparison and switching website Bonkers.ie said the report confirmed recent figures from EU body Eurostat showing that the Republic had the bloc’s highest electricity prices.
