Martin's on Talkback re Airtricity

Polly

Martin's on Talkback at the moment discussing how finally we've maybe got some competition in the electricty market with perhaps savings of 14%. I for one will switch at the first opportunity, if this turns out to be the case. I pay £103 per month at the moment and the only decision will be what to do with the £173 per annum saving! :j

He's promised to do a comparison on this site so looking forward to that one.

Orange_King

Great news - about time NIE had a challenge. Is there any news on who the competitor(s) will be?

Golden_Anemone

Yes! I heard on the radio this morning that Airtricity are going to move into the domestic market. This is great news! I'm aware through my job of the competitive pricing their entry into the business market here caused so fingers crossed this happens for Joe Public too. :j

NIE can wave bye bye to their monopoly at long last. :T

Polly

Martin said it may spark a price war - joy oh joy :j

Bigcammy

It's about time NIE had some proper competition, however I'll not be rushing to switch just yet. I'll let the first couple of months pass to see how smooth the transition is and what sort of savings people see first.

seatzie

I'm jumping next week, we were already switching in work and had a hint it would be in the next fortnight, so thats good news, screw you NIE.

Insert - just heard MD of Airtricity on Talk Back, he says could be up to a year before pre pay people can switch

Word of warning though if you're on a pay as you go meter, i.e. top up at a garage post office etc, NIE are restricting the number of people per month who can switch because when it happened in the South many people left ESB and didn't pay their final bills. If you pay monthly or quarterly by dd you're free to leave when you want

mumoffour77

Bigcammy wrote: »

It's about time NIE had some proper competition, however I'll not be rushing to switch just yet. I'll let the first couple of months pass to see how smooth the transition is and what sort of savings people see first.

I with you!!:o
There are bound to be teething problems!!

Golden_Anemone

You can register your interest on their website.

caz2703

We had a mini discussion about the Single Electricity Market a while back on here and how that was meant to bring about competition and reduce prices. For those not in the know, SEM came into effect in November 2007 with the aim of providing an All Island mechanism for producing and supplying leccy where power stations put their price into the market and the distributors pick the cheapest and most viable option to distribute. There's more to it than that but I don't know all the ins and outs.

Open question: I for one haven't seen a reduction in my bill - have you?

seatzie

reductions will only come when there's a competitor in that actual market, if NIE have nobody offering prices lower than them, and their raw material costs have been going up, of course they're going to pass on the full cost allowable to consumers

if Energia ever get going in the residential market here, just remember they are owned by the same parent company as NIE

Magooorobino

NIE Energy increased our D/debit from £78-£181.00 in January. I argued that the increase did not reflect the annual ussage and they reduced it reluctantly to £135.00 I have now had it reduced to £100 after much correspondence with NIE, who still do not admit that an increase of £78 to £181.00 D/Debit monthly payment was not justified. I complained to the Consumer Council in Belfast, they were not interested (maybe this is a quango that we don't need). The complaint is now with the Utility Regulator.
I welcome Airtricity, whatever they charge, bye bye NIE Energy!!