ENERGY SUPPLIER SSE Airtricity is to cut residential electricity and gas prices from the beginning of February next year. 

The standard unit rate of electricity will drop by 12.8% while gas will decrease by 11.5%. 

The decrease will mean a typical household will see their electricity costs drop by around €210 per year, while gas will drop by around €150, according to price comparison website bonkers.ie. 

The rate will be automatically applied to all customers from 1 February, when winter is over. 

Energy companies significantly increased their prices throughout 2021 and 2022 in response to the worldwide energy crisis and rocketing inflation rates, leading to high costs for most customers. 

Since then, the prices have gradually been cut. SSE Airtricity announced a price decrease in September, which came into effect last month, with electricity and gas prices dropping by 12% and 10% respectively. 

“This latest price drop will definitely put pressure on all the other suppliers to reduce their prices by similar amounts over the coming weeks,” said Daragh Cassidy of bonkers.ie. 

Cassidy noted that SSE’s standard electricity prices remain around 85% above where they were in 2020 before Covid and the war in Ukraine had major impacts on energy prices, while its gas prices are around double what they were. 

“Regardless, we are slowly but surely seeing energy prices fall to slightly more manageable levels,” he said. “But we’re still quite a long way from normality and our electricity costs in particular remain way above the EU average.” 

Klair Neenan, the managing director of SSE Airtricity, said the company was passing on savings to customers “at the earliest possible opportunity”. 

The company noted that winter is a difficult time for many energy customers as temperatures drop, and encouraged people who are having trouble paying their bills to constact their customer care team. 

The government brought in energy credits of €450 for all homes in October’s Budget, with each household receiving three credits of €150 each between the end of this year and next April. 

It is the third round of energy credits announced by the government since prices spiked in 2021. 

At the time, Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe noted that “many people… are concerned about rising costs and particularly the challenges of heating and lighting their homes this winter”.