People who have received estimated bills from their energy providers must submit accurate readings immediately or risk being hit with higher charges for gas and electricity used before the latest round of price hikes hits. comes into effect from this weekend.
Suppliers have announced price increases of between 20% and nearly 50%, with all increases due to take effect at specific times next month, with the first of these impacting national energy bills from the start. october.
This means households could end up ‘paying back’ a significant amount for their energy at much higher rates unless they submit an up-to-date meter reading.
SSE Airtricity customers attempted to submit updated readings to the site on Friday were frustrated following what the company called “technical issues” with the difficulties prompting a delay in a price increase planned for this weekend.
ESB Networks and Gas Networks Ireland attempt to read household electricity and gas meters once every few months to assess the amount of energy used. But between readings, or if they can’t access the meter, an estimate is used.
A report from the Utilities Regulatory Commission last year showed that 52% of electricity customers and 46% of gas customers had not submitted their own meter reading in the previous 12 months.
Customers of Electric Ireland and Bord Gáis Energy are particularly bad at providing readings, with nearly 60% of those customers failing to do so, according to the survey.
Estimates are not always accurate and sometimes providers may underestimate usage.
When this occurs, customers will be billed for units used at a later date after an actual reading has been taken and may be billed at the most recent price.
“Unless you provide a regular meter reading to your energy provider, some of your gas and electricity bills will be based on an estimate of your usage, which may or may not be very accurate,” Daragh said. Cassidy from Bonkers price changing site. .that’s to say.
“The problem in a time of rising prices is that the energy bill you owe will be based on today’s price. It will not be based on the price of your gas and electricity when they were actually consumed and when prices were perhaps much lower.
He said he would “really encourage all households to submit a reading to their supplier as soon as possible. This can usually be done online or through an app. Or as a last resort, you can call your provider and provide the reading over the phone. »
Customers with a smart electricity meter that has been activated need not worry about submitting an electricity reading as the meters provide near real-time updates on usage to providers.
SSE Airtricity customers who attempted to submit updated meter readings on Friday were unable to do so due to what the company called “technical issues”.
In a statement posted to social media platforms on Friday afternoon, the company said it “is currently experiencing technical issues which have impacted our online services for customers in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Nord. We are working hard to resolve this issue and apologize for any inconvenience caused to our customers.”
In a statement provided to The Irish Times, the company said “the outage was reported late Friday morning” and it was working to resolve the issue. This has prompted calls for a postponement of the price increase due to be rolled out by the company on October 1.
Fianna Fáil Dublin spokesman Cormac Devlin TD said the company’s customers had been barred from submitting meter readings “and now risk being overcharged by the utility”.
In a follow-up statement, SSE Airtricity said its customers can submit a meter reading to [email protected] and any readings received by noon on October 2 would be honored at the previous price change rate.
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