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Experts have said that a proposal to pay for green energy incentives and supports for peat-fired power plants could add €40 a year to Irish consumers’ electricity bills and significantly increase industries’ costs. Every year, the Irish Commission for Energy Regulation imposes a public service obligation charge on all its electricity users to pay for incentives for renewable energy.
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The charge was dropped in October 2009 for 12 months, but the regulator estimates that the incentives now cost €195 million a year, and proposes adding a new charge to cover this. This would increase domestic bills by an average of €40 a year.
The energy consultants McKinnon Clarke said that those that will be hit the hardest will be large industrial users, who could face rises of €30,000 a year. One of the company’s consultants, Sandra Quinn, said that such customers will also lose credits paid to large energy users.
A spokesman for the regulator said that the increase was currently just a proposal, and that no final decision had yet been made.