Households are already paying an average of €900 more a year for their electricity compared to last year.
Kildare households are to be told they have to pay an extra €26 on average on their annual electricity bills to ensure the lights are kept on this winter.
The Commission for the Regulation of Utilities (CRU) said the significant risks to the country's electricity supply means it must "act quickly".
It will hold a two-week public consultation, however changes to tariffs will come into effect from 1st October.
The CRU says the network requires €478m to secure supply in 2023. The tariff changes are intended to cover €100m of that.
However, it insists what it's proposing means that “extra-large energy users” such as data centres and other industries face a higher increase to their bills.
Kildare households are already paying an average of €900 more a year for their electricity and €800 more for their gas than they were at the start of 2021.
The CRU proposes:
- A peak differential for all customers for 2022/23. CRU said it has required providers to develop peak network tariffs to be levied between 5pm and 7pm each day, which it anticipates will lead to a reduction in demand at the “critical peak period”;
- An increasing block tariff for high-energy users, where users that ramp up their demand significantly will face specific higher tariffs to match;
- A system alert tariff, to also apply to large energy users, to apply to those who are inflexible and do not reduce demand when the system is under stress;
- A “decarbonisation” tariff aimed to incentivise a reduction in demand at times when the electricity system has a greater reliance on fossil fuels. Large energy users who are “inflexible” and do not move their demand during such times will face this tariff.
The country's electricity demand is expected to increase by 13% between 2021 and 2025 but more than half of that rise (62%) is set to come from a small number of data centres.
CRU said that the risks to Ireland’s energy system are not directly caused by any one sector, but the “significant demand growth” from extra-large energy users such as data centres is a “significant contributing factor”.
Darragh Cassidy, Head of Communications, Bonkers.ie spoke with Eoin Beatty on Friday's Kildare Focus about the energy hikes:
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