Here at MoneyguideIreland we are always advising people to shop around and switch energy suppliers to reduce bills – but how many people have actually switched their Electricity provider?
The CRU (Commission for Regulation of Utilities ) publish information on the numbers of people switching electricity suppliers in Ireland.
In 2022 – Electric Ireland still had the most residential electricity customers (about 40%)
In 2022 16% of electricity customers and 17% of gas customers switched supplier during the year.
In 2022, active customers who switched or renegotiated every year for the last 4 years could have saved €1,677 on electricity, €1,266 on gas, or €1,733 on their dual fuel costs. (CRU figures)
See out latest Electricity Price Comparison here to see how much you could save.
We think that householders should treat energy supply like insurance … and compare prices and switch to the cheapest every year.
In another 2019 survey – 49% of households said they had never switched electricity provider
Of those that had switched – 19% had done so within the last 12 months.
On average – just under 12% of people are switching electricity provider in Ireland every year. (UK figures are almost 15% a year)
The main reason for switching electricity supplier was a desire to save money on the total bill – with 89% of people giving that as a reason.
Of those that had switched electricity supplier – over 87% felt that the changeover went smoothly .
The survey discovered that the largest effect on switching was being approached by a supplier’s salesperson face to face .
The worrying thing about this – is that consumers will usually be getting biased information from sales people who are on commission. They may feel pressured into signing up without knowing the details of offers available from other suppliers.
You should check out our latest Electricity Price Comparison to see which supplier is the cheapest for your usage.
The survey also found that most people did not realise that electricity prices are now fully unregulated with suppliers being allowed to set their own prices. Three-quarters of people did not know this was the case – and assumed that some sort of state price regulation was in force.
Rural Electricity Prices Compared