Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The overall impact of the levy on consumer bills depends on what happens with the other components in electricity prices. The wholesale price of electricity makes up 50% of a bill, while the network charges make up 30%. That would be a higher factor than would be the case in most other EU countries, purely because we have a dispersed rural population. Up to 30% of our population is on 97% of the country’s landmass. Due to that, the distribution charges are significantly higher than in other parts of the European Union. The retail margin the companies have is between 10% and 12%.

The advantage with the fall in the wholesale price is retailers will pass on those reductions to consumers. However, because of that, we have to compensate the wind operators for that fall in the wholesale price, which, in turn, leads to an increase in the PSO. This has increased by €10.80 to €70.80 per annum. I encourage people to shop around. If they go to bonkers.ieor switcher.ie, they can save up to €200, which would more than negate the cost of the PSO.

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