ELECTRICITY AND GAS customers at one of the State’s largest energy providers are to be hit with a price rise in a few weeks, as SSE Airtricity confirmed that bills will be increasing for their customers.

The provider announced today that it will raise its standard variable household electricity and gas prices from 2 April.

The move is estimated to impact around 250,000 electricity customers and 85,000 gas customers.

The price change will result in a 10.5% rise in electricity bills for the average customer, while gas bills will see an 8.4% increase.

This means an extra €0.47 per day on the typical electricity bill and €0.31 per day on the average gas bill.

For households with dual fuel, the increase amounts to around 9.5% overall, equating to approximately €0.78 per day.

Price Breakdown

For dual fuel customers, the average household will see a 9.5% increase in their dual fuel bills, equivalent to €5.48 per week.

For electricity-only customers, a 10.5% increase in electricity bills will be intorduced, or €3.29 per week.

Gas-only Customers face a rise of 8.4%, or €2.19 per week.

This means an annual increase of €171 for electricity and €114 for gas.

The new electricity unit rate will increase by 12.75%, and the gas unit rate will rise by 10.5%. However, these changes will not impact customers on fixed-rate tariffs.

‘A last resort’

Since 2022, the company has reduced its prices three times, but they said in a statement today that they faced increasing external costs that it “can no longer absorb”.

The company said that network charges had increased by around 20% in October 2024 and wholesale energy costs rose by 18% compared to the previous year.

“Increasing prices is always a last resort,” Stephen Gallagher, Managing Director of SSE Airtricity, said.

“We have worked hard to shield our customers from the full impact of volatile energy costs. We’ve led the market with customer support packages, including the largest in the sector, and by foregoing company profits in 2023.”

Daragh Cassidy, Head of Communications at price comparison site Bonkers.ie, said the question now is “whether other suppliers will follow suit”.

“Before today, SSE had the lowest standard rates in the market as it was one of the few suppliers to reduce prices three times over the past two years,” Cassidy explained.

“This is obviously unwelcome news for households.”