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Some Welcome Relief For Householders As Electricity Price Drops

Monday 12 March 2007

There is some good news for householders today as Northern Ireland Electricity (NIE) announces that electricity prices will drop by three per cent or £11 off the average annual bill from April 2007. However, the Consumer Council said that while the decrease is welcome, consumers could have been looking at a seven per cent fall if they did not have to pick up the multi-million pound tab for cleaning up Kilroot Power Station.

Joanne Gamble, Head of Energy at the Consumer Council said: “In the past, consumers have been used to prices going up, not down, so today's news is a welcome break and hopefully the start of a new trend of falling electricity prices. This decrease means that electricity prices in Northern Ireland are now in line with the rest of the UK.  This is good news for households here who, until now, have traditionally paid more for their heat, light and power.  At a time of relentless pressure on the household budget and the looming introduction of water charges, every penny saved counts. “

“However, the price decrease is not as low as it could be.  Yet again, this is due to the legacy of the privatisation of electricity in 1992, which continues to mean that long-suffering customers will again have to pick up the cost of past decisions and contracts, which have proved not to be in the customer's interest.

“Consumers are picking up the £40 million cost of cleaning up Kilroot this year. We do not believe that consumers should have to pay a penny more for this unless the costs are robustly challenged and justified in an open and transparent way.  We urge NIE, the Department for Enterprise, Trade and Investment and Ofreg (the regulator) to continue their efforts to ensure that any additional costs are kept to an absolute minimum.

Turning to the possibility of downward trend in energy prices, Joanne Gamble continued: “NIE has been able to drop the price of electricity largely because of falling wholesale fuel costs.  If this continues, it is important that any further reductions are passed onto consumers swiftly and in full.

  1. Consumer Council media contact: Susie Brown, telephone, 028 9067 4807 or e-mail, sbrown@consumercouncil.org.uk. 
  2. The Consumer Council is an independent consumer organisation, working to bring about change to benefit Northern Ireland's consumers. The Council campaigns for high standards of service and protection and a fair deal for all. It also carries out research, gives advice and publishes reports and other publications. It deals with individual complaints about electricity, natural gas, coal and passenger transport.
  3. For more information, visit our website at www.consumercouncil.org.uk

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