Time to review your electricity tariff
When Covid 19 struck earlier this year, the wholesale cost of electricity fell sharply. But recently the price of power has been moving upwards. In October electricity traded on the main wholesale market was 17% more expensive compared with the same month last year.
Prices are set to remain under pressure this winter. That’s because of a tightening squeeze of the margin between the amount of power we require and the generation available to meet that need during periods of high demand. The so...
Published on 15/11/2020
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Comparing central heating costs
For the vast majority of people, no matter what you use to heat your house you are exposed to a greater or lesser extent on world fuel prices. The fluctuations in these costs will determine whether you find yourself paying an increasing or decreasing amount to keep your home warm.
Earlier this year those households using home heating oil got a huge boost as the cost of crude dropped sharply. The oil price has recovered somewhat but has still not returned to where it was at the start of the ye...
Last updated on 29/10/2020
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Scope for savings
Electricity charges are coming down following a fall in wholesale prices. The cuts are not as big as one might have hoped. Partly that’s because a drop in demand for electricity, driven by the coronavirus crisis, has led to the smearing of fixed costs over a smaller volume of sales. Nevertheless reductions are underway and for most households that means savings can be secured by switching supplier.
Power NI has put its previously announced tariff reduction of almost 5% into effect. That’ll cu...
Published on 30/06/2020
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Repowering Kilroot with gas turbines boosts security of supply but Grid Operator still stresses importance of N/S Interconnector
The SONI Managing Director welcomes the upcoming conversion of Kilroot Power Station from coal to gas. Jo Aston says the development will help reduce our carbon footprint and secure longterm jobs. Acknowledging that the installation at the site of two Open Cycle Gas Turbines with a combined capacity of over of 400MW will bring NI great security of supply, she nevertheless says it's still very important to build a new North South Interconnector to support the drive to net zero carbon by 2050.
Published on 11/06/2020
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Fall in demand limited size of Power NI price cut
The Electricity Regulator has welcomed the near 5% reduction in Power NI's tariff. The decrease which will come into effect at the start of July will reduce the average household domestic electricity bill by close to £30. However Jenny Pyper says the cut would have been much more significant had it not been for a fall in total electricity demand as a result of Covid-19 which left fixed costs being smeared over a smaller number of units.
Published on 12/05/2020
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Further fall in cost of home heating oil
The collapse in oil prices has sent the cost of home heating oil plummeting. It’s now down at a level not seen since early 2016.
The average charge for 500 litres is just over £137. That has left home heating oil the cheapest by far of the four fuels compared by enirgy.info.
At these prices heating a house with home heating oil would cost £465 over the course of a year, a margin of £150 cheaper than natural gas.*
As crude oil continues to suffer from over supply and depressed demand, ...
Published on 23/04/2020
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Will the cost of electricity come down
On Sunday April 5, the main wholesale market here for electricity went negative. Instead of paying, people got paid, for taking supplies of power from the Day Ahead Market. Now that’s not that unusual. There have been short periods before where charges have gone negative. But this was the first time that it happened to the average price across an entire day But let’s not get too carried away. At the price recorded, acquiring each kWh put just 0.2 pence in the pockets of buyers. It hasn’t exactly...
Last updated on 16/04/2020
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How low can energy prices go
In one short week there’s been a change at the top of the central heating leaderboard.
When enirgy.info last calculated the cost of heating a home, natural gas emerged as the cheapest of the four fuels under comparison.
That result wasn’t wholly surprising as it followed cuts in gas prices of around 20% approved by the Energy Regulator. The margin however over home heating oil was relatively small as the cost of that fuel was being impacted by the sinking value of crude oil.
But home h...
Published on 09/04/2020
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