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A choise of electricity supplier

  • 12-03-2007 12:48pm
    #1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 510 ✭✭✭


    Coming from the UK I was used to having to choose an electricity supplier. As with everything else you would shop around for the cheepest one. I have been searching the net for an alternative to esb and this is all I could come up with.

    Here is a link to the only other supplier of electricity in Ireland http://www.airtricity.com/ireland/

    Why when esb charge so much is there not alot of competitors out there fighting for my business?:confused:


Comments

  • Registered Users Posts: 986 ✭✭✭psicic


    dts wrote:
    Why when esb charge so much is there not alot of competitors out there fighting for my business?:confused:

    It simply because none of the ‘alternative’ energy providers in Ireland really want to provide electricity to home users.

    This is because of profit levels on home customers versus the investment needed in infrastructure to generate electricity in Ireland. A residential user would take somewhere in the order of 15 years to become a profitable prospect. (you can probably tell – I recently attended a talk on the Irish electricity sector – most of what I say is from them).

    And since you mention prices, I thought it was interesting when I found out it was the ESB who was fighting the energy regulator against even higher price rises which were being petitioned for by the private electricity companies to make them more profitable.

    When Ireland and the UK electricity market merge in a few years time (which is planned to happen after the Northern Ireland/Ireland merge), ESB will truly be a minor player(less then 6% market share) and then the consumer will have choice because the UK companies will be able to sell electricity in Ireland without basing major infrastructure here.

    For now, though, you’ll be hard pressed to find competition in the electricity market.


  • Moderators, Regional North West Moderators Posts: 19,088 Mod ✭✭✭✭byte
    byte


    psicic wrote:
    When Ireland and the UK electricity market merge in a few years time (which is planned to happen after the Northern Ireland/Ireland merge), ESB will truly be a minor player(less then 6% market share) and then the consumer will have choice because the UK companies will be able to sell electricity in Ireland without basing major infrastructure here.

    For now, though, you’ll be hard pressed to find competition in the electricity market.
    Really? Didn't know this was gonna happen. That'll be interesting. What kind of timeframe are we looking at?


  • Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 90,537 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    Some would say the price increases here recently have been to encourage competition before a sell off. We used to have the third cheapest electricity in the EU. As a large island with no major interconnectors and with just the population of Birmingham and with rural ribbon development and a massive building boom requiring loads of new connections we were never ever going to have the cheapest electricity so third cheapest was a real achievement.

    I have no problem with competition but FFS Prices have gone up 60% in the last 3 years and it's still not attractive enough for foreign "competition" !
    If we do get "competition" and they would have to REDUCE the price by 40% just to get us back to where we were under the ESB "monopoly"

    I resent having to pay more for electricity just so they can sell it off to some shareholders and then I'll have to pay the dividends too.

    There is an old addage that says "if it works , don't break it" pity they didn't leave the ESB alone years ago.

    If the EU is really against competition, why haven't they done anything realistic against Microsoft :mad: Given the ESB's pricing and availability before govenment invervention it's extremely clear they wern't abusing their "monopoly".

    Because of customer churn all future suppliers will have to charge more to cover the extra connection costs. Compare eircom and the reselling, the difference between the retail and wholesale rate is so small that it used to take 18 months to cover the cost of the connection fee, no wonder eircom still have most of the market still.

    If we are in a Ire/UK market - who pays for the grid in this unprofitiable backwater ?
    Or are we looking at another Railtrack :mad:

    Electricity is an essential service, too important to leave in the hands of bean counters and possibly corrupt private companies, then again given the past history of this country I can't complete rule out brown envelopes or at least the allegations of them when it comes to handing out contracts.


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