Households across the South East have been warned to brace for electricity and heating price hikes this winter as an energy crisis deepens in Europe.
As the European economy reopens from lockdown, huge demand is being placed on wholesale energy costs.
Wholesale electricity costs are now at their highest level since the single electricity market was introduced in 2018 and three times higher than the same period last year.
This is about to have a knock-on effect on homeowners with domestic energy providers hiking prices to match rising wholesale costs - a move that is claimed will "hit households hard" — with some homeowners facing an added €700 to €800 to their annual bill.
Speaking to RTÉ's Today with Claire Byrne, Daragh Cassidy of Bonkers.ie said "there’s a crisis that’s brewing that households aren’t aware of and when people start receiving their winter bills in December, January and February it is really going to hit them hard."
He continued: "Some suppliers have had to raise prices four times and those increases have added €700 to €800 to the average annual bill which is a huge sum of money."
So far this year Electric Ireland has increased its pricing by 9%, with other providers having already bumped up their prices by 30-35%.
Photo by Magda Ehlers from Pexels
