PAY AS YOU go utility provider Pinergy has announced that it will be raising electricity prices from early January.

The company announced this afternoon that residential electricity prices would be hiked by 14% from 9 January, adding an estimated €320 to bills annually.

In a statement, Pinergy CEO Enda Gunnell said that the price increases were due to stalled electricity market reforms at an EU level, particularly around a price cap for electricity generated by natural gas.

“We had hoped these changes would be in place quickly and had delayed this increase for as long as possible,” Gunnell said,

“However, the outlook on the global wholesale markets continues to be very volatile and challenging going into 2023.

“The wholesale price increases in global energy markets have been further exacerbated by local increases in regulated market charges that became effective in recent months.”

The company added that there would not be a change to the standing charge, which will remain at 71 cent a day, excluding VAT.

This is the second price hike by Pinergy this year, who increased the cost of electricity to their customers by 19.2% in September.

Pinergy offer both pay-as-you-go and monthly billing for electricity.

Reacting to the news, Darragh Cassidy of utility price comparison website bonkers.ie said that the price hike by Pinergy wasn’t unexpected.

“As just a supplier of electricity, Pinergy is making no money from generating electricity, so is highly exposed to rising energy prices on wholesale markets,” Cassidy said.

“Falling wholesale electricity prices have been in the news recently so many people might be confused at today’s announcement. 

“However, wholesale energy prices are still at an extremely high level. At one stage during the summer, the price of gas was up by well over 1,000% on wholesale markets for example. So when we hear of falling energy prices we need to remember that it’s on the back of prices which were at record highs to begin with.”