The wholesale prices of oil and gas have been falling for several months now – and this is one of the reasons that Bord Gais Energy say they have announced upcoming price cuts to Gas and Electricity.
The reductions come into force on the 16th March 2015 and will apply to new and existing customers . The standard gas unit rates will fall by by 3.5% and standard electricity unit rates will be cut by 2.5% .
As you can see from our energy price comparison – people who switch energy suppliers can currently get much better prices than Bord Gais Energy from other suppliers.
We have calculated that for someone using the national average amounts of gas and electricity – that the upcoming Bord Gais price cuts will still not make them the cheapest for switchers.
For example the best Bord Gais dual fuel offer for new customers would currently end up costing €2027 over 1 year. When the price cuts are applied – this figure would drop to €1973 – but there are cheaper deals available from ALL the other energy suppliers.
These price cuts are just bringing Bord Gais Energy charges closer to it’s competitors.
Bord Gais Energy – (now owned by Centrica) had the biggest majority of gas customers in Ireland for many years but prices had to be agreed by the Energy Regulator. To allow them to break away from price regulation – they had to reduce their number of gas customers to below 55% of the total – so they didn’t (or couldn’t) compete on gas prices. This lower customer level target was met in July 2014 – and now they can charge whatever they want. (deregulation happened just in time for the sell off to Centrica)
More here about the state sell off of Bord Gais Energy (if you didn’t realise the government sold it to Centrica last year.)