Rate of gas and electricity disconnections has fallen

THE NUMBER of gas and electricity customers who entered into special bill pay arrangements because of difficulties making payments almost doubled last year.

The rate of gas and electricity disconnections has fallen, indicating a growing willingness among customers in arrears to either make, or respond to, contact with their suppliers and come to payment arrangements.

There are 2,021,951 domestic electricity customers in the State, and 625,288 domestic gas customers.

Figures provided by the four domestic gas and electricity suppliers show that Electric Ireland (formerly ESB Electric Ireland), which supplies electricity, had the highest number of customers in special payment arrangements in 2010, with 160,000. That figure increased to 315,00 last year.

In the case of Bord Gáis, which supplies both gas and electricity, numbers more than doubled, from 31,500 customers on repayment plans in 2010, to 76,700 last year.

Airtricity, which also supplies gas and electricity, has “around 8,000 customers who have entered into active payment plans”. A spokesman said this was a doubling on the figure in 2010.

Flogas, which has been in the domestic gas market on a national scale since October 2009, said fewer than 1 per cent of its 25,000 customers were in payment plans.

Full-year figures for disconnections in 2011 will be published by the Commission for Energy Regulation later this month. Its latest report, covering January to August 2011, says “electricity disconnection rates in the first eight months of 2011 were lower, on average, than the same period in 2010”, while gas disconnections fell by almost one-third.

Some 10,592 domestic customers had their electricity cut off in January to August 2010, falling to 9,554 (9.8 per cent) in the first eight months of last year.

The number of domestic gas users disconnected in January to August 2010 was 4,381, falling 32.6 per cent to 2,951 in the same period last year.

“The decrease in 2011 for domestic disconnections coincides with an increase in the number of prepayment metres which have been installed since the beginning of ,” says the report.

Airtricity had the highest disconnection rate in the electricity market, at 18 per 10,000 customers, followed by Electric Ireland at six per 10,000 and Bord Gáis at three per 10,000. In the same four-month period last year, Flogas had the highest disconnection rate for gas customers, at 30 per 10,000, followed by Bord Gáis at 10 per 10,000 and Airtricity at three per 10,000.

Bord Gáis installed 20,120 pay-as-you-go metres last year, compared with 1,260 in 2010. Electric Ireland also last year introduced a pay-as-you-go metering system and an average of 300 to 400 customers a month had them installed last year.

All companies said customers in difficulties should contact them to arrange payment plans.