Shadowing Practice: How will the Iran war affect Ireland's electricity prices? | RTÉ News - Learn English Speaking with Video

Now, since the war in Iran began, energy prices have steadily increased.

The worry is that electricity will be next, and Irish households already pay among the highest electricity prices in Europe.

Well, with me now to discuss what could lie ahead is Dara Lyon, a CEO of the Electricity Association of Ireland, which is a representative body for the electricity industry.

Dara, thanks so much for coming in to speak to us this evening.

The Minister for Energy, Dara O'Brien, this week caused some alarm when he said that energy prices, electricity prices, I should say, could be up by about €150 in a year and that it could happen in the next few months.

Is that what you see happening?

Well, I don't think anyone knows the answer to that question except suppliers themselves.

And those decisions will be based on a number of factors.

One, how many customers they have, what kind of tariffs they have and their own risk appetite.

But two big factors will also play into that, how long the Iran war continues and the price of gas.

Retail prices in Ireland generally track gas prices.

That's because gas, it makes up 50% of our electricity generation.

And when you look at the price of futures gas, that is gas for next winter, it's about 109.

Today, it's about 108.

And in January, it was about 97 cent.

But we did see when the Strait of Hormuz was opened, gas prices came down.

So the hope is that there is a quick end to this war.

It will have an effect on gas prices.

And as suppliers start to hedge for next winter, that those gas prices will be much lower.

And when does that hedging start?

Is it for today?

Is it for three months time, a year's time?

It's really in slices.

So they can hedge for a day, a week, for six months ahead and up to two years ahead.

And that is the IP for each supplier.

They have traders that try to gauge the risk, how much they need and how much to hedge at any given time.

So they're constantly looking at the prices ahead, constantly decided when to jump into the market and when to jump out.

We know that the European Commission has said that governments should be able to do more now and they're looking at grid charges, taxes, all of that.

And we know that network charges and taxes make up about 30 or 40% of what you pay in your electricity bill.

Is there an argument now for the government to take on those charges for maintaining the network themselves and to also reduce the tax on electricity?

Well the network charges are set by the regulator and they're set for a five-year term and what they've decided in terms of the investment that the likes of ESB networks need and Airgrid need, that they will add charges.

charges but the charges are in the region of one euro and 75 cent per month and for that we get upgrades on the grid 100,000 houses connected a million EVs on the system and a half million heat pumps on the system so it's very good value however the tariffs to use the network are also up for revision and I think there's there is room for flexibility there that where you can bring on demand when there's excess electricity, then maybe there's a way that tariffs could flex to allow that electricity to come on the grid.

Do you see some scope in what the European Commission has been talking about for help for consumers if electricity prices do increase?

It was a great document, the Accelerate EU, and it's given a whole list in the Annex of things that governments can do.

In Ireland, we have a low taxation on electricity.

We've already reduced the VAT rate down to 9%.

But I think that the European Commission will look at taxation across the board on energy and maybe set some rules for all member states to do.

But we already have substantial grants for EVs, for retrofits that they've looked for.

They've looked for freezes in public transport.

Ireland brought that in a number of years ago.

And we also have moratoria on disconnections during the winter period, all part of the list of actions within that annex.

Okay, now arrears are still a really big problem in this country when prices increased.

after the war in Ukraine started, the number of people in arrears also increased.

Do you think that is likely to continue and how should it be tackled?

I think arrears have been stubbornly high and I think the next step is to go a bit deeper into who is in arrears and to what amount.

And I think concentrating on some of the high arrears, maybe into the area where people just won't pay and then into the arrears where people are unable to pay.

And I think if we can disaggregate that data, concentrate on the vulnerable customers and give supports, for example, like an electricity allowance through their bill.

And this is where the likes of the Department of Social Welfare has to come in rather than blanket reductions blanket credits for everybody we need to make sure that the credits go to vulnerable customers and we saw during the last time credits were applied arrears went down and what about there'll be lots of people worrying now that their electricity prices might be going up because they've seen petrol diesel home heating oil all go up what options do people have bar turning off the electricity not using it Well, I think that would not be wise.

I mean, people need to be warm, they need to have their showers, they need to cook.

But one thing that we've invested heavily in Ireland, ahead of a lot of European countries, is we've put in 2.1 million energy smart meters.

And only 30% of customers have actually activated them.

If they talk to their supplier, ask for their smart meter to be activated, they get half hourly data that they can collect over a period of time.

ESPN have a wonderful portal that you can get your daily weekly all set out on your profile it allows you then to go back to your supplier and say here's my profile over the last three months what's the best tariff for me how can you save me money.

There was some fear at the start when smart meters came in that the tariffs were more expensive and has that stopped people switching over?

I think there's a there's a combination of looking at your profile it's hard for people to make that leap into the unknown but by activating your smart meeting you have your data every half an hour of consumption and that can be uploaded to your supplier or the supplier can assess your usage and then put a tariff to you that you then can save money on.

Okay, Dara Lyonis, CEO of the Electricity Association of Ireland, thank you.

Thank you.

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Shadowing Practice: How will the Iran war affect Ireland's electricity prices? | RTÉ News - Learn English Speaking with Video

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