Latest news with #CommissionfortheRegulationofUtilities
Irish Independent
14-07-2025
- Business
- Irish Independent
‘Enough is enough' – households being forced to subsidise the costs of data centres, says Sinn Féin MEP
It comes after the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities (CRU) decided to increase the electricity network charges for households, but reduce the charges for large users such as data centres. Dublin MEP Lynn Boylan accused the CRU of making households subsidise the costs of data centres. The Sinn Féin politician said this was 'incredible at a time when bills are crippling so many'. In a draft decision, the regulator is proposing an €18bn investment in the country's electricity system. This will mean network tariffs – part of the charges that make up customer bills – will rise to fund the revamp. Earlier this month, the CRU issued a press release saying the five-year investment plan should add between €6 and €16 to the average annual household bill. However, a deeper dive into the regulatory documents revealed that the investment plan could add €80 to an average annual domestic bill. This is a rise of 21pc in the network charges for households, taking annual network charges for consumers to €454 a year. Extra large energy users could see their network charges fall by between 3pc and 18pc up to 2030, under different scenarios the regulator has modelled. The €18bn investment is needed to pay for strengthening networks to cope with extreme events such as Storm Éowyn and allow for the connection of tens of thousands of new homes and businesses. ADVERTISEMENT Ms Boylan said that under the CRU's draft decision, households and SMEs will see their electricity network charges rise. At the same time, large energy users such as data centres will get reductions of up to 18pc. 'Regulatory documents reveal that grid upgrades are being driven in part by the growing electricity demands of data centres, whose usage has increased 400pc since 2015,' Ms Boylan said. 'In effect, the entities driving the increased need for grid investment are being asked to contribute less, while the general public pays more.' Now data centres are driving up the cost of electricity in a cost-of-living crisis She said this amounts to households being forced to subsidise the costs of data centres. 'The CRU will dress this up as a complicated technical decision, but at the end of the day this is a political choice to side with Big Tech's data centres over households,' she said. She said data centres were making it harder to build houses in a housing crisis, but were also making it harder to keep the lights on in an energy crisis. 'Now data centres are driving up the cost of electricity in a cost-of-living crisis. Enough is enough.' The CRU insisted large energy users will end up paying multiples more than residential electricity users in network charges. Data centres are just one part of the growing electricity demand and the CRU said it continues to introduce measures to manage their impact and ensure a balanced, secure energy supply for all users. It said the decrease in network charges for extra-large energy users is mostly attributed to the decline in costs from recent years associated with temporary increases in the transmission tariffs. These contributed to larger increases in the bills of large energy users over the last five years when compared to smaller customer groups. It said that between 2020 and this year, typical large energy users experienced a 167pc increase in network charges, compared with a 35pc increase for domestic customers.
Irish Independent
12-06-2025
- Business
- Irish Independent
Levy on electricity bills to subsidise wind farms set to fall
Energy regulator, the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities, has decided to set the levy at €1.94 a month from October. This works out at €23 a year, and is half of what the Public Services Obligation (PSO) levy is at the moment. Electricity prices in this country are already among the highest in Europe However, it comes after a warning this week that household electricity bills are to be hit with an increase by at least €83 a year to pay for a major upgrade of the country's power system. Households currently pay on average €254 per year as part of their bill to help fund annual upgrades but that would increase to €337 next year under the current proposal. ESB Networks has asked the energy regulator to approve a price increase that would enable it to fund investment of between €10.1bn and €13.4bn over the next five years. At the lower estimate, the average residential bill-holder would be charged €1.60 extra per week, totalling €83 per year or €415 over the investment period. This is on top of the standing charge imposed on electricity bills. The CRU is tasked with working out how much money wind farms and solar panel operators will need each year to enable them to supply electricity. This is charged to households and companies in the form of the PSO levy. The regulator has now issued a decision paper which indicates that the PSO levy for 2025/26 has been calculated that €156.22m. This is the amount the CRU says will be required to support these renewable energy projects. 'This will result in a monthly charge of €1.94 and €7.59 for domestic and small commercial customers, respectively,' the CRU said. Last year it was revealed that the average household electricity bills was to rise by €100 over a year from last October after the energy regulator approved an increase in the funding needed to operate and develop the electricity grid. Daragh Cassidy of price comparison site said the proposed reduction in the PSO levy is obviously welcome. But wholesale electricity prices remain so high. This is why less money is needed to support renewable projects as they are already receiving enough money for the electricity they generate on the open market. 'But given how high prices remain, many households will probably be wondering why the levy is still needed at all,' he said. Mr Cassidy said the move towards net zero is going to be difficult and billions of euro is needed by EirGrid and the ESB over the coming years to help reinforce our grid in order to meet our climate targets. 'And while renewable energy should help electricity prices ease from their near-record highs over the coming years, some of the savings will be cancelled out by the money that's needed to invest in infrastructure like battery storage, interconnectors, and the grid itself to better manage all the renewable energy.' The executive said electricity prices in Ireland are still around 70pc to 80pc above where they were before the war in Ukraine broke out. It means the average household is still paying over €500 a year more for their electricity than they were only a few years ago. It is similar for gas. But it is highly unlikely prices will revert anywhere near to pre-war levels in the medium term unfortunately.
