Dublin the most expensive European capital for household electricity

Household electricity costs in Dublin are the highest in the European Union with Irish consumers facing annual bills that are around €800 more than the EU average, according to a report.

Commissioned by the Austrian and Hungarian energy regulators, energy advisory company VaasaETT’s the latest Household Energy Price Index indicates that Irish households are paying 47.12c per kilowatt hour (kWh) including taxes, almost double the European average of 26.34c. Given that households use, on average, 4200 kWh of electricity each year, consumers in the Republic may be paying more than €800 more for electricity than their EU counterparts.

However, the report highlights that the typical customer in Dublin is paying negative energy taxes at the moment due to the electricity account tax credit announced in Budget 2023. This will come as “an additional relief” to households facing still-elevated household bills, VaasaETT said.

Along with London, Dublin was the most expensive capital city in Europe for household electricity and the fourth most expensive for residential natural gas, according to the report. Prague, Riga and Berlin are the other capitals in the top five with Kyiv having the least expensive electricity prices.

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The report indicates that European retail electricity and gas prices have fallen by 6 per cent and 18 per cent respectively from last July when wholesale prices were spiking in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

However, “the general downward trend” observed since November last came to an end last month as the average electricity prices increased 6 per cent. This, VaasaETT said, was largely due to a “large price surge” in Denmark, Portugal and Lithuania as various temporary support measures were withdrawn.

Central Statistics Office (CSO) figures published on Tuesday show a sharp 64 per cent decline in wholesale electricity prices in the year to the end of July.

But electricity suppliers have yet to pass on these declines to consumers although the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities said recently that while prices remained high it anticipated that a fall from the highs recorded in 2022 would be passed on to Irish consumers before the end of the year.

“However at €96 per MWh [megawatt hour], prices are still over double the level they were in 2020 before Covid and then the war in Ukraine wreaked havoc with energy prices,” said Bonkers.ie spokesman Daragh Cassidy last month. “The simple fact is that the cost of electricity in Ireland is still very expensive to generate and has been for many years.”