Wholesale electricity prices fall by more than 60% in year to September

Wholesale electricity prices fell by more than 60 per cent in the year to September as energy costs continued to decline from 2022 peaks that were driven by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Latest figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show that wholesale electricity prices increased by 4.8 per cent between August and September of this year, but prices were 60.6 per cent lower in September 2023 than in September 2022.

The overall Energy Products Index (which includes electricity as well as petrol, diesel, gas and fuel oil) increased by 5.2 per cent between August and September 2023, but has fallen by 53 per cent when compared with September 2022.

Energy prices shot up in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February last year, reaching a peak in August 2022. Wholesale electricity prices rose by 194.9 per cent between August 2021 and August 2022, with the wholesale price of electricity peaking at almost €400 per MWh, versus an average of about €38 per MWh for all of 2020.

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The 60.9 per cent annual fall in wholesale electricity prices in September follows a 72.5 per cent drop in prices between August 2022 and August 2023.

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Energy providers have begun to pass falling wholesale prices on to customers, with price reductions of between 9.5-30 per cent announced by Energia, SSE Airtricity, Flogas, Bord Gáis Energy, Electric Ireland, Pinergy, and PrePay Power in recent months.

The CSO’s wholesale price index for September also shows producer prices for food products fell by 8.1 per cent in the 12 months, while the food products, beverages and tobacco index was down by 7.3 per cent.

[ PrepayPower announces energy price cuts of up to 13.5% ]

The largest annual price increase was for fruit and vegetables, where prices rose by 13.4 per cent, while the largest decrease was for dairy products, as prices fell by 25.6 per cent.

Domestic producer prices for manufactured goods were on average 1.9 per cent lower in September when compared with a year earlier, while producer prices for exported goods fell by 2.6 per cent.

Overall, manufacturing producer prices were also 2.6 per cent lower in the year.

The largest annual increase among non-food producer prices was for beverages, where prices rose by 8.1 per cent. Meanwhile the biggest fall was for wood and wood products, where prices fell by 8.5 per cent in the year.

Wholesale prices for construction products decreased by 0.3 per cent in the month to September, but rose by 2.6 per cent in the 12 months since September 2022.