Le aziende energetiche accusate di “truffa sui prezzi” in quanto un rapporto internazionale mostra che non riescono a trasferire i costi inferiori

Electricity companies in Ireland are failing to pass on falls in the cost of wholesale energy to consumers and businesses, a new report has found.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) found that retail prices in Ireland are three times higher than wholesale prices – one of the highest gaps in the world.

The agency also found that the gap between what it costs to produce energy in this country and what it is sold for is one of the largest in the world.

The report confirms that Ireland has the highest electricity prices in Europe because we have the largest gap between what it costs to produce energy and what consumers pay.
First-time buyers get €66k on average from First Home Scheme

“The disparity in Ireland was the largest, with the energy component of retail prices three times higher than wholesale prices,” it states.

The IEA is a Paris-based inter-governmental organisation that provides policy recommendations and data on the global energy sector.

It is made up of 32 member countries.
Sinn Féin MEP Lynn Boylan accused electricity companies here of “price gouging”, saying the report “exposes a shocking reality”.

The IEA report says that Irish consumers pay around €0.33/kWh for the energy component of electricity. This is the highest rate of all EU countries.
It said the gap between wholesale electricity and retail prices in some countries is large because recent falls in wholesale costs have only partially been passed on to customers.

Figures from the Central Statistics Office show that Irish wholesale energy prices are 71pc lower than in 2022 at the height of the energy crisis.

More than a million households face electricity price hikes this month as Energia, Bord Gáis and SSE Airtricity raise prices.
Ms Boylan said the IEA report has shown up deep structural failures in how our energy market is run.

“It exposes the profiteering by energy companies who have shamelessly turned a global crisis into a racket,” she said.
“They hiked prices overnight when costs rose, but when prices collapsed again, they banked the gains. This is price gouging, plain and simple.

“Ireland doesn’t just have some of the highest electricity prices in Europe. It has the largest gap between what power actually costs and what consumers pay.”
She said that in Ireland, when wholesale prices fell sharply in 2023 and 2024, suppliers kept prices high.

Asked about price gouging, the Electricity Association of Ireland referred to a recent finding by the energy regulator that it has not seen evidence of windfall profits in the retail market.
CEO of the representative body, Dara ­Lynott, blamed high gas prices.

He said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 sent wholesale price surging. And this country has become increasingly reliant on imported gas to produce electricity.

“Irish household electricity bills almost doubled, climbing from around €2,000 to approximately €4,000 annually,” Mr Lynott said.

“While prices have eased slightly, households here still pay more for electricity than the EU average.

“In Ireland and across the EU, wholesale electricity prices track the price of natural gas and therefore our energy market is particularly exposed to global gas price volatility.”

Whatever politician forces a change here and halves (not unreasonable if we have a 3x increase today) the cost of electricity, will secure my future votes.

While providing zero actual value.

Why is such essential service not state owned?

It’s not like competition is driving prices down here.

In general the opening of the market here has been a huge negative for consumers. Instead of driving prices down they’ve gone way up.