Switching electric/gas providers (see first post for links)

I just caught a FloGas sales rep near our house. He was very helpful, but can't give me a fixed rate. He couldn't say if there'll be one at all.

Have you got one? I'm electric only and no new offer yet but got the email a few weeks ago saying they would be sending one

From the article:

People face increased costs in the coming years despite a likely fall in wholesale prices for electricity and gas

While there may be a modest increase in gas prices (I think the above is taking a longer term view), increases to the standard charge and other levies are minor in comparison to the entire bill. I cannot see 30 or 40% hikes in 2025. Even 20% seems a lot to me.

That's just my guess tho.

Prices were due to be rising in 2022 anyway because some people in suits wanted to after the COVID pandemic ended, Russia's invasion of Ukraine simply made the problem worse so what was meant to be a big rise became a very big rise.

Since 2022 we could have changed our energy policy to better protect consumers. The UK and France for example have price caps on what suppliers can charge. We could have introduced these or even something simpler like removed the policy of paying the highest price to all providers regardless of whether you provide solar, gas, oil etc

Our govt sat on their hands, actually reduced things that might help like the home solar grants and the cut to VAT, and now we will suffer as a result.

It's not a monopoly at all, every provider is still free to choose their tariffs as long as they remain below the cap. It's very much like the situation we have in Ireland at the moment except that they have to charge a price below what is a set maximum.

Under the current system when one company announce price increases the others follow suit within a few weeks and there is no maximum they are allowed by law to charge

I'd say dynamic tariffs, like smart tariffs, will only push prices in one direction, and that's up

They've reaffirmed no more energy credits for now, though the budget is still a long way away.

I can claim that the solar grant dropped because that's exactly what has happened. €300 knocked off in 2024 and another €300 knocked off this year.

https://www.rte.ie/news/2023/1201/1419607-solar-panels-grants-cut/

https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2024/1218/1487206-homeowners-reminded-of-upcoming-cut-to-solar-panel-grant/

The energy credits were nothing more than a vote buying tactic, now that they're back in they will probably stop too. They'll probably make up some nonsense about "targeted relief" or something to that effect instead

I'm not sure how you can say energy price caps will be bad for the consumer, especially without any real evidence to backup your claim. You'd still have the same level of competition from the various exploiters providers in the market. SSE could still raise their prices in April but only by a certain amount, which would shield many consumers from very high pricing

Finally Electric Ireland may have forgone their profits in 2022 but their parent ESB Group made a very healthy profit that year

https://www.agriland.ie/farming-news/esb-annual-operating-profit-rose-by-e168m-to-e847m-in-2022/

I'm not sure how you can say energy price caps will be bad for the consumer, especially without any real evidence to backup your claim.

I'm not sure how you can say energy price caps will be good for the consumer, especially without any real evidence to backup your claim. I don't think this is the appropriate place to discuss it tho.

My point was that the government did not sit on their hands and took action. You may disagree with the action but it's not sitting on their hands.

Quite simple really, if you cap your prices then the consumer can't be charged more than the price that cap is set at. Let's that the recent announcement by Airtricity as an example they are increasing their unit prices by 12.75%. For their customers on a 24hr plan they are currently paying 26.65c per kWh and on April 2nd they will pay 30.05c per kWh but if we introduced a legal cap of (for example) 25c/kWh Airtricity would actually have to decrease their prices. Even if we had a cap of 27c/kWh Airtricity would only be able to increase prices by about 1.3%.

So because the consumer pays less it will be good for the consumer

My point was that the government did not sit on their hands and took action. You may disagree with the action but it's not sitting on their hands.

They absolutely took action, they cut the solar grant and then increased the VAT on electricity prices. I prefer if they did something to bring down the cost of electricity though. Because lower costs would be good for the consumer

VAT on electricity was cut from 13.5% to 9%. It has not been increased. It will be restored. Inflation has slowed down and the relative cost reduced.

This isn't the appropriate forum for this discussion. This is about posters discussing the cheapest deal. Your analysis is simply incorrect and I'm basising that on supervising several postgraduate students in the field over the last decade. Price caps in the manner the UK apply them increase the overall cost for consumers. That's pretty much accepted in academia.

This isn't the forum for it so I'll leave it there. You're free to PM me and I can discuss it further with you there.

It's been a very cold start to the year. Colder than other years I'd say… Colder weather means appliances are used more often and are less efficient. 73% increase though is a lot even for that

hence my statement: "It will be restored"

You are correct but nonetheless I recommend you let it go, time and place for this debate isn't here

Flo Gas will be kissing goodbye to a load of on direct debit customers who have been paying on time for 2 years or more if they play this too cute regarding the affinity deal.