Energy prices: Power NI to increase electricity cost by 27.5%

Northern Ireland's largest electricity supplier, Power NI, has announced it will increase prices for domestic customers by 27.5% from 1 July 2022.

It means the average household bill will go up by £204 a year. The Utility Regulator has approved the tariff.

Power NI said the change was due to price increases in the wholesale energy market.

It follows a 21.4% price rise at the beginning of January and a 6.9% rise last July.

The increase will affect more than 450,000 households and comes as consumers across Northern Ireland face higher food and fuel costs.

William Steele, customer solutions director for Power NI, said the firm had tried to keep prices as low as possible and "absorbed costs for as along as we can".

"Regrettably, geopolitical factors outside our control, have resulted in prolonged high costs in the international wholesale energy markets," he said.

"Like other suppliers we have no choice but to pay these increased costs, which feed into the price of wholesale electricity and have a knock-on effect on tariffs."

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The company said it was committed to helping customers hit by rising prices and added that a number of discounted payment schemes can help cut customer costs, including online billing.

The Utility Regulator, which approved the tariff increase after receiving a submission from Power NI in April, said prices will come down when wholesale prices reduce.

"We continue to see a lot of volatility in the wholesale energy markets, which makes predicting when prices will start to drop, extremely difficult," Chief Executive of the Utility Regulator John French said.

"However, if wholesale prices do begin to reduce, our system of regulation in Northern Ireland allows us to act to make sure that reductions are fully passed onto consumers as quickly as possible."

The regulator said Power NI's increase will be 17% cheaper than the average annual tariffs in Great Britain and Ireland, which are both £1,142 compared to Power NI's £944.