Multinationals have been paying energy companies far less than Irish homes and businesses for electricity, it has emerged.
Soaring power prices left more than 266,000 customers in arrears on their bills at the end of last year, while Government is paying more than €2 billion in energy aid to homes and businesses.
Figures show that Electric Ireland, part of State-owned ESB, Energia and Bord Gáis, were charging some multi-national customers between 6 and 12 cent for a kilowatt hour (KW/h) - the basic unit in which electricity is sold - between last year and 2021, when prices first started increasing.
Over the same period some Irish companies were paying between 15 and 41 cent for the same unit of electricity.
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Recent estimates from the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) show that Irish families paid between 43 and 45 cent KW/h last month.
In 2021, the typical rate was between 15 cent and 18 cent. Last year, when the Ukraine war sparked further increases, the average was between 22 cent and 35 cent.
Some examples show that Electric Ireland was charging US group Boston Scientific’s Cork operation 12.25 KW/h for electricity last year and German transport group Kuehne + Nagel 12.73 KW/h.
The previous year, Canadian electronics business, Celestica was paying Electric Ireland 6.17 cent KW/h.
Last year Energia was charging US drugs maker West Pharmaceuticals 7.22 cent KW/h, while its charges to other multi-nationals were 6.5 cent and 8.6 cent.
Electric Ireland did not comment on any individual customer. The company said several factors influenced prices, including gas and carbon costs, a business’s demands and system charges.
The State company pointed out that businesses get fixed-term contracts with prices based on wholesale energy and commodity costs at the time they agreed the deal.
Those agreements include hedges based on how the parties expected prices to vary over the contract’s life.
Consequently, a company that agreed a three-year contract in 2020 for the 2020/22 period would benefit from lower prices, as they would be tied to forward hedging costs that applied at the time the deal was struck.
A company that got a similar deal last year would pay more as its charges would be tied to prices and hedges that applied in 2022, after the sustained rise in costs.
“As such the price of electricity may vary between customers for any point time depending on what contract and underlying hedges were secured,” Electric Ireland said.
Energia did not comment on any individual customer. The company said commercial contracts varied according the time they were agreed, forward pricing and hedging, and their duration.
“And there is no distinction whatsoever made between indigenous or multi-national clients,” it stressed.
Energia added that it strove at all times to give business and domestic customers the most competitive prices.
Bord Gáis said it treated all customers fairly and pointed out that businesses bought energy in several different ways.
“Therefore, price comparisons from one entity to another, across multiple time periods, and across multiple segments is an inaccurate analysis and will lead to inaccurate conclusions,” the company added.
Kuehne + Nagel, Celestica and West Pharmaceuticals did not comment.
The Commission for the Regulation of Utilities, said that in an open, competitive market, it could not regulate the prices that each supplier charged a particular group.
