Commission for Regulation of Utilities Electricity and Gas ... · annual consumption of 11,000kWhs)...

Information Paper

Reference: CRU19014 Date Published: 14/02/2019

An Coimisiún um Rialáil Fóntas

Commission for Regulation of Utilities

Electricity and Gas Retail

Markets Report Q3 2018

An Coimisiún um Rialáil Fóntas Commission for Regulation of Utilities

1

Public/ Customer Impact Statement

The purpose of this report is to provide industry, consumers and interested stakeholders with

relevant information1 on the development of competition in the electricity and gas retail markets

in the third quarter of 2018.

Retail market monitoring forms an important part of CRU’s activities. The information collected

through retail market monitoring helps to inform new policy and in the assessment of existing

regulations.

This report is part of a suite of reports including monthly switching reports, quarterly reports,

annual reports and emerging reports based on new market monitoring data which CRU began

publishing in 2016. The information on the retail markets as provided in this report gives an insight

into how the retail market is functioning and can highlight any specific issues that need to be

addressed.

This report details changes in market shares in the electricity and gas retail markets up to the end

of Q3 2018 and presents information about customer switching, renegotiations, prices and levels

of discounts available. Trends in wholesale prices are also included in the report as increases

observed in wholesale electricity and gas prices correspond to increases in retail prices – the

average wholesale electricity and gas prices for Q1 – Q3 2018 are higher than the average prices

for 2017 and for 2016. The report also provides up to date information on trends in disconnections,

PAYG installs and debt flagging.

For any queries on this report please contact [email protected].

Revisions

Version Published Update

1 14/02/2019 Report published

1 The primary sources of data in this report are: Electricity: MRSO (Meter Registration System Operator), ESBN (ESB Networks) and Gas: GPRO (Gas Point Registration Operator), GNI (Gas Networks Ireland). Information for a number of market monitoring indicators is also provided by suppliers.

mailto:[email protected]


2

Table of Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................................................... 2

GLOSSARY OF TERMS AND ABBREVIATIONS ................................................................................ 5

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ........................................................................................................... 7

KEY MESSAGES ...................................................................................................................................... 8

1. INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................... 12

1.1 BACKGROUND................................................................................................................................ 12

1.1.1 CRU’S ROLE IN RETAIL MARKET MONITORING .............................................................. 12

1.1.2 RELATED DOCUMENTS ......................................................................................................... 12

2. ELECTRICITY AND GAS RETAIL PRICES .................................................................................... 14

2.1 WHOLESALE ENERGY PRICES ............................................................................................................ 16

2.2 DOMESTIC ELECTRICITY PRICES ......................................................................................................... 17

2.3 DOMESTIC GAS PRICES .................................................................................................................... 18

2.4 DOMESTIC DUAL FUEL PRICES .......................................................................................................... 19

2.5 CHANGES IN STANDING CHARGES AND UNIT CHARGES OVER TIME ......................................................... 20

2.6 NUMBER OF CUSTOMERS ON DIFFERENT PLANS – ELECTRICITY .............................................................. 22

2.7 NUMBER OF CUSTOMERS ON DIFFERENT PLANS- GAS .......................................................................... 23

2.8 NUMBER OF CUSTOMERS DEFAULTING TO STANDARD TARIFFS .............................................................. 23

2.9 FEATURES OF PLANS ....................................................................................................................... 25

2.10 SUMMARY – ELECTRICITY AND GAS RETAIL PRICES ............................................................................. 26

3. MARKET SHARE – DOMESTIC ELECTRICITY ............................................................................. 28

3.1 DOMESTIC ELECTRICITY MARKET SHARE BY CUSTOMER NUMBERS AND MWHS ....................................... 28

3.2 SUMMARY – MARKET SHARE – DOMESTIC ELECTRICITY ........................................................................ 29

3.3. MARKET SHARE – WHOLESALE ELECTRICITY ....................................................................................... 30

3.4 SUMMARY – MARKET SHARE – WHOLESALE ELECTRICITY ..................................................................... 30

4. MARKET SHARE – DOMESTIC GAS ......................................................................................... 32

4.1 DOMESTIC GAS MARKET SHARE BY CUSTOMER NUMBERS AND GWHS ................................................... 32

4.2 SUMMARY – MARKET SHARE – DOMESTIC GAS .................................................................................. 33

5. CUSTOMER SWITCHING AND RENEGOTIATIONS .................................................................... 34

5.1 ELECTRICITY, GAS AND DUAL FUEL SWITCHING IN Q3 2018 .................................................................. 34

5.2 RENEGOTIATIONS ........................................................................................................................... 37


3

5.3 SUMMARY – CUSTOMER SWITCHING AND RENEGOTIATIONS ................................................................. 39

6. FINANCIAL HARDSHIP PAYG .................................................................................................. 41

6.1 SUMMARY – FINANCIAL HARDSHIP PAYG .......................................................................................... 44

7. DEBT FLAGGING .................................................................................................................... 45

7.1 SUMMARY – DEBT FLAGGING ........................................................................................................... 46

8. DISCONNECTIONS ................................................................................................................. 47

8.1 DISCONNECTIONS – TOTAL .............................................................................................................. 47

8.2 DISCONNECTIONS - ELECTRICITY MARKET ........................................................................................... 48

8.3 DISCONNECTIONS - GAS MARKET ...................................................................................................... 50

8.4 SUMMARY – DISCONNECTIONS ......................................................................................................... 51

9. ARREARS AND PAYMENT PLANS............................................................................................ 52

9.1 SUMMARY – ARREARS AND PAYMENT PLANS ...................................................................................... 54

10 BUSINESS ELECTRICITY AND GAS COST COMPONENTS .......................................................... 56

10.1 ELECTRICITY ................................................................................................................................. 59

10.2 GAS ........................................................................................................................................... 60

11. BUSINESS ELECTRICITY AND GAS PLANS AND PRICES ............................................................ 61

11.1 SMALL BUSINESS ELECTRICITY PRICES .............................................................................................. 61

11.2 IC GAS PRICES ............................................................................................................................. 63

11.3 EUROSTAT NON-DOMESTIC ELECTRICITY AND GAS PRICES .................................................................. 64

11.4 SUMMARY .................................................................................................................................. 66

12. BUSINESS ELECTRICITY MARKET SHARE ............................................................................... 67

12.1 SMALL BUSINESS ELECTRICITY MARKET SHARE BY CUSTOMER NUMBERS AND MWHS ............................. 67

12.2 MEDIUM BUSINESS ELECTRICITY MARKET SHARE BY CUSTOMER NUMBERS AND MWHS ......................... 69

12.3 LARGE ENERGY USERS ELECTRICITY MARKET SHARE BY CUSTOMER NUMBERS AND MWHS ...................... 71

13. BUSINESS GAS MARKET SHARE ............................................................................................ 73

13.1 INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL GAS MARKET SHARE BY CUSTOMER NUMBERS AND GWHS ..................... 74

13.2 MEDIUM SIZED NON-DOMESTIC MARKET SHARE BY CUSTOMER NUMBERS AND GWHS .......................... 76

13.3 DM MARKET SHARE BY CUSTOMER NUMBERS AND GWHS ................................................................ 78

13.4 LDM MARKET SHARE BY CUSTOMER NUMBERS AND GWHS ............................................................... 80

14. MARKET CONCENTRATION .................................................................................................. 82

14.1 ELECTRICITY MARKET SEGMENTS .................................................................................................... 82

14.2 GAS MARKET SEGMENTS ............................................................................................................... 86


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15. NON-DOMESTIC DISCONNECTIONS .............................................................................. 90

16. CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................... 92

ANNEX 1 OVERVIEW OF ELECTRICITY PASS THROUGH COSTS AND CHARGES FOR

2017/18 ................................................................................................................................. 93

1 ELECTRICITY MARKET SEGMENTS ......................................................................................................... 93

2 CONSUMPTION ................................................................................................................................. 93

3 OVERVIEW OF CHARGES...................................................................................................................... 94

4 GENERATION CHARGES ...................................................................................................................... 96

5 NETWORK CHARGES .......................................................................................................................... 97

6 PUBLIC SERVICE OBLIGATION LEVY (PSO) ............................................................................................. 98

7 ELECTRICITY TAX ............................................................................................................................... 99

ANNEX 2 OVERVIEW OF GAS PASS THROUGH CHARGES AND COSTS FOR 2017/18 .... 100

1 GAS MARKET SEGMENTS .................................................................................................................. 100

2 CONSUMPTION ............................................................................................................................... 100

3 NETWORK CHARGES ........................................................................................................................ 101

4 CARBON TAX................................................................................................................................... 103

ANNEX 3 CHARGES IN THE BUSINESS MARKETS DEVELOPMENTS SECTION ................. 104

5

Glossary of Terms and Abbreviations

Abbreviation or Term Definition or Meaning

AQ Annual Quantity

BGE Bord Gáis Energy

CfD Contract for Difference

CoS Change of Supplier

CRU Commission for Regulation of Utilities

CTSR Street Isolation

DLAF Distribution Loss Adjustment Factor

DM Daily Metered

DMs Disconnect Meters

DUoS Distribution Use of System

ESBN ESB Networks

FVT Fuel-Variation Tariff

GNI Gas Networks Ireland

GPRN Gas Point Reference Number

GWhs Gigawatt Hours

HHI Herfindahl-Hirschman Index

IC Industrial/Commercial

I-SEM Integrated Single Electricity Market

kWhs Kilowatt Hours

LDM Large Daily Metered

6

LEU Large Energy Users

MPRN Meter Point Reference Number

MWhs Megawatt Hours

NBP National Balancing Point

NDM Non-Daily Metered

NIAUR Northern Ireland Authority for Utility Regulation

NPA Non-Payment of Account

PAYG Pay As You Go

PSO Public Service Obligation

RTF Regulated Tariff Formula

SEAI Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland

SEM Single Electricity Market

SEMO Single Energy Market Operator

SMP System Marginal Price

SPC Supply Point Capacity

TUoS Transmission Use of System

7

Executive Summary

Retail market monitoring forms an important part of the CRU’s activities. The information gleaned

through market monitoring helps to inform new policy and aids in the assessment of existing

regulations. The information and analysis provided in this report aims to provide insight into how

the electricity and gas retail markets are functioning and to highlight any specific issues that may

need to be addressed.

The purpose of this quarterly report is to provide consumers, industry and other interested

stakeholders with relevant information on the key developments in the electricity and gas retail

markets in Q3 2018. The report draws on a range of data sources from the past quarter and

provides an overview of the electricity and gas retail markets.

The report begins with an overview of electricity and gas retail prices, including the components

of customers’ bills and final retail prices.

The next section of the report presents domestic market developments with regard to the status

of suppliers’ shares in the domestic market segments, and customer engagement in terms of

switching.

The next part of the report focuses on consumer protection through an analysis of Pay As You Go

(PAYG) meters, effective debt flagging2 processes, disconnections, and arrears and payment

plans.

The final section of the report presents business market developments during Q3 2018 in terms

of business electricity and gas cost components, plans and prices, the status of suppliers’ market

share in the business segments, metrics of market concentration, and non-domestic

disconnections.

The key messages from the Q3 2018 Report are outlined in the next section.

2 When a customer requests to change to a new supplier, the existing supplier has the facility to inform the new supplier of outstanding debt if it is above the industry thresholds approved by the CRU. The new supplier can then choose whether to proceed with or cancel the change of supplier (CoS) request where this ‘flag’ has been raised.

8

Key Messages

Electricity and Gas Prices

▪ A total of 7 suppliers announced price increases in the first half of 2018, based on

increased wholesale costs and regulated charges. Four suppliers have announced

further price increases (one supplier at the end of Q3 2018 and three suppliers during

Q4 2018) becoming effective in Q4 2018. Supplier’s increases and effective dates for

tariff changes are outlined in this report.

▪ The All-Island wholesale electricity price (System Marginal Price, SMP) from 2012 to

June 2018 is presented in this report. Between January and September 2018, the

average SMP price was 32% higher than the average price during the same period in

2017 and 50% higher than the average price during the same period in 2016.

▪ The wholesale gas price at the UK trading hub, which sets the wholesale gas price in

Ireland, also increased in 2017 and 2018. As of September 2018, the average price of

gas for 2018 was 40% higher than the average price during the same period in 2017,

and 58% higher than the average price during the same period in 2016.

▪ In September 2018, the least expensive estimated annual bill in electricity (based on

typical consumption of 4,200kWhs) for a standard plan was with BeEnergy at €964.59.

The least expensive discounted plan was with Energia with an estimated annual bill of

€897.21.

▪ The least expensive estimated annual bill for a standard plan in gas (based on typical

annual consumption of 11,000kWhs) was with Just Energy at €749.67. The least

expensive discounted plan was with Just Energy with an estimated annual bill of

€699.66.

▪ In 2018 Electric Ireland, Energia, Bord Gáis Energy, Just Energy, Panda Power and

SSE Airtricity offered dual fuel plans to customers with price discounts for domestic

customers that avail of both services from the same supplier. The least expensive dual

fuel offer was with Energia with an estimated annual bill of €1,590.78.

Market Share – Domestic Electricity

▪ End of Q3 2018, Electric Ireland had the largest domestic electricity market share, with

48.01% of the market in terms of consumption, with its market share continuing to fall

slowly. This was followed by Bord Gáis Energy with 18.69%, SSE Airtricity with 13.80%,

Energia with 8.66%, PrePayPower with 6.52%, Panda with 2.27% and Pinergy with

1.35%. 2017 was the first year that Electric Ireland’s share fell below 50%, and it stayed

below this level in Q3 2018.

9

▪ Between Q3 2017 and Q3 2018, SSE Airtricity’s market share decreased by 1.93% in

terms of consumption. PrePay Power increased its market share by 1.43%, the largest

increase during the period.

Switching and Renegotiations

▪ The total number of customers switching in electricity was 78,013 in Q3 2018. This

represented a decrease in switching of 4.41% from Q2 2018, where there were 81,615

switches.

▪ The total number of customers switching in gas was 34,155 in Q3 2018. This

represented a decrease in switching of 0.55% from Q2 2018, during which time there

were 34,343 customer switches.

▪ In Q3 2018 dual fuel switches represented 33% of total switches.

▪ The total number of internal switches/renegotiations in domestic electricity in Q3 2018

was 46,138 (2.23%). This is an increase of 0.016% on the Q2 2018 figure of 45,377.

The total number of internal switches/renegotiations in domestic gas in Q3 2018 was

16,265 (1.18%), compared to 15,667 in Q2 2018 (4% increase from Q2 2018).

▪ 5.62% of electricity and 7.45% of gas customers looked for a better energy plan in Q3

2018 through either switching supplier or renegotiating with their current supplier. This

represents a decrease of 2.92% for electricity and 0.23% for gas compared to Q2 2018

and an increase of 2.84% for electricity and 10.08% for gas compared to Q3 2017.

Market Share – Domestic Gas

▪ End of Q3 2018, Bord Gáis Energy had the largest market share in terms of customer

numbers, with 45.50% of the domestic gas market, followed by Electric Ireland with

20.86%, SSE Airtricity with 13.44%, Energia with 7.99%, PrePayPower with 5.97% and

Flogas with 4.26%.

▪ Between Q3 2017 and Q3 2018 Bord Gáis Energy lost 2.76% of market share in terms

of customer numbers. PrePayPower increased its market share by 2.34%.

10

Financial Hardship PAYG and Debt Flagging

▪ The total number of electricity PAYG financial hardship installs in Q3 2018 was 653

compared to 965 in Q3 2017.

▪ The total number of gas PAYG installs in Q3 2018 was 1,492. 9.99% of these were for

financial hardship reasons. In the same period in 2017, 1,937 were installed, with

18.02% for financial hardship reasons. This indicates that the installs were being driven

by lifestyle choice customers.

▪ There were 575 debt flags raised in the electricity market in Q3 2018, corresponding to

approximately 0.74% of all electricity Change of Supplier (CoS) requests in the quarter.

This represents a 9.9% increase from Q2 2018.

▪ 150 debt flagged CoS requests were cancelled in the electricity market in Q3 2018,

which means that 26% of debt flags resulted in a CoS request being cancelled.

▪ There were 614 debt flags raised in the gas market in Q3 2018, corresponding to

approximately 1.8% of all gas CoS requests in that quarter. This represents a 12%

increase from Q2 2018.

▪ 294 debt flagged CoS requests were cancelled in the gas market in Q2 2018, which

means that 48% of debt flags resulted in a CoS request being cancelled.

Domestic Electricity and Gas Disconnections

▪ The total number of disconnections in Q3 2018 was 1,337 for electricity and 579 for

gas.

▪ Between Q3 2017 and Q3 2018, the total number of electricity disconnections have

increased by 9% and the total number of gas disconnections have increased by 5.9%.

Arrears and Payment Plans

▪ Between 11% and 23% of customers across all segments were in arrears in Q3 2018.

▪ Of those customers in arrears, 40% (electricity) and 47% (gas) were in arrears for

excess of 90 days.

▪ The percentage of total customers per market segment on payment plans is 0.58% for

domestic electricity and 0.37% for domestic gas indicating that 11,961 electricity

customers and 2,483 gas customers are on payment plans.

11

▪ Generally, more payment plans are completed by electricity and gas customers than

broken.

Market Share – Non-Domestic Electricity and Gas

▪ At the end of Q3 2018, Electric Ireland had the largest share of the small business

electricity market in terms of consumption with 34.54%, and of the medium business

electricity market with 41.75%, while SSE Airtricity held the largest share in the LEU

market with 30.66%. SSE Airtricity moved to having the largest share in the LEU market

for the first time in Q1 2018 and this continued into Q2 and Q3 2018.

▪ At the end of Q3 2018, Bord Gáis Energy had the largest share in all non-domestic

market segments in terms of customer numbers - with 42.19% in the IC market, 28.87%

in the medium sized non-domestic market, 24.36% in the DM market and 52.63% in

the LDM market.

Non-Domestic Electricity and Gas Disconnections

▪ The total number of non-domestic disconnections in Q3 2018 was 304 for electricity

and 70 for gas.

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1. Introduction

1.1 Background

1.1.1 CRU’s Role in Retail Market Monitoring

The Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) is Ireland’s independent energy and water

regulator. CRU was established in 1999 and now has a wide range of economic, customer

protection and safety responsibilities in energy. CRU is also the regulator of Ireland’s public water

and wastewater system.

CRU’s primary economic responsibilities in energy cover electricity generation, electricity and gas

networks, and electricity and gas supply activities. The overall aim of CRU’s economic role is to

protect the interests of energy customers. CRU has an important related function in customer

protection by resolving complaints that customers have with energy companies.

CRU’s core focus in safety is to protect lives and property across a range of areas in the energy

sector. In 2014 CRU was appointed as Ireland's economic regulator of the Irish public water and

wastewater sector.

CRU has an important statutory role to protect energy consumers and to monitor the electricity

and gas retail markets to ensure that customers are benefitting from competition. A key strategic

goal of CRU is to protect consumers, so they can benefit from competition through fully

competitive wholesale and retail markets. Retail market monitoring forms an important part of

CRU’s activities, in terms of providing oversight of the market, informing new policy and assessing

existing regulations.

Electricity and gas retail market reports are published by CRU on a quarterly basis and provide

information on trends in prices, switching, market share, and customer protection. The aim of

these reports is to provide an overview of competition in the electricity and gas retail markets and

provide consumers, industry and relevant stakeholders with information over time.

1.1.2 Related Documents

Further information on CRU’s role and relevant legislation can be found on CRU’s website at

www.cru.ie.

http://www.cru.ie/

ELECTRICITY AND GAS RETAIL PRICES

13

ELECTRICITY

AND GAS

RETAIL PRICES


14

2. Electricity and Gas Retail Prices

This section outlines the range of plans offered by suppliers from July 2018 to September 2018

for domestic electricity, gas and dual fuel customers, including their standard and highest

discounted plans. All information presented here is publicly available on price comparison and

individual supplier websites.

There are a large number of plans available to domestic and business customers. These plans

offer customers different tariffs comprised of standing and unit charges (and in some instances

other charges).

Suppliers can also offer different rates depending on the payment or billing methods of customers

(e.g. paperless, online, direct debit etc.). All suppliers are required to publish details of tariff plans

that are available to domestic customers. Suppliers of commercial customers often provide

bespoke plans and information on such plans is generally not published by suppliers. Some

suppliers also offer standard plans to business customers.

The first part of this section provides comparisons between suppliers for their standard and

discounted plans in gas and electricity, and details price changes by suppliers in Q3 2018.

This is followed by analysis of new data received by the CRU from suppliers. Data on the top ten

electricity, gas and dual fuel plans per supplier in terms of customer numbers is provided to the

CRU on a quarterly basis. This includes information on the price components of each plan,

discounts, consumption and customer numbers and has been used for analysis of the number of

customers on different levels of discounts and standard plans.

It should be noted that this does not represent all customers in the market as suppliers may have

more than ten plans which are not reported under the new market monitoring framework.

Price comparison websites are useful tools for customers to compare prices across suppliers.

CRU has an accreditation framework which reviews the energy price comparison service provided

by websites and only accredits a site if it meets defined standards for accuracy, transparency and

reliability. There are two CRU accredited price comparison websites: www.bonkers.ie and

www.switcher.ie.

Between Q4 2017 and Q3 2018, a number of price increases were announced across different

suppliers and in addition the 2017/18 PSO levy came into effect. There are a number of drivers

for these price increases, including increased wholesale electricity and gas prices in 2017 and

2018 and increases in pass through costs in electricity. Between the 2016/17 and 2017/18 tariff

year, total regulated costs (including transmission and distribution charges and market operator

charges) have increased by approximately 3.33%. The dates of announcements and their

effective dates impacting on final prices are outlined below.


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Supplier Price Change Details Effective date

Pinergy ➢ A price increase for electricity of 5.6% was announced on the 1st of November 2017.

➢ A price increase of 9.38% for electricity was announced on the 12th of July 2018.

➢ A price increase of 5.68% for electricity was announced on the 8th of October 2018.

1st December 2017

1st August 2018 7th November 2018

Flogas ➢ A price increase for gas of 3.3% was announced on the 1st of November 2017.

➢ A price increase of 12.8% for gas was announced on the 12th of July 2018.

➢ A price increase of 9.8% for gas was announced on the 27th of September 2018.

1st December 2017

1st August 2018 1st November 2018

Energia ➢ A price increase for electricity of 3.9% was announced on the 27th of October 2017.

➢ A price increase for electricity of 7.6% and for gas of 12.38% was announced on the 29th of June 2018.

➢ A price increase for electricity of 5.5% and for gas of 6.3% was announced on the 16th of November 2018.

1st December 2017

1st August 2018 1st January 2019

Bord Gáis Energy ➢ A price increase of 3.4% for gas and 5.9% for electricity was announced on the 29th of September 2017.

➢ A price increase of 4.7% for gas and 5.8% for electricity was announced on the 6th July 2018.

1st November 2017

6th August 2018

PrePayPower ➢ A price increase of 0.09 cent a day (€2.83 a month) was announced on the 31st of October 2017.

➢ A price increase of 6.6% for electricity and 7.5% for gas was announced on the 3rd of July 2018.

1st December 2017

3rd August 2018

SSE Airtricity ➢ A price increase of 5.6% for electricity was announced on the 29th of September 2017.

➢ A price increase of 12.3% on gas tariffs and 6.4% on electricity tariffs was announced on the 14th of June 2018.

➢ A price increase of 6.9% on gas tariffs and 6.3% on electricity tariffs was

1st November 2017

14th July 2018 3rd December 2018


16

announced on the 2nd of November 2018.

Electric Ireland ➢ A price increase of 4% for electricity was announced on the 6th of October 2017.

➢ A price increase of 6.2% in electricity and 8% in gas was announced on the 27th of June 2018.

1st February 2018

1st August 2018

2.1 Wholesale Energy Prices

The wholesale electricity market in Ireland is jointly regulated by the CRU and the Northern Ireland

Authority for Utility Regulation (NIAUR). This market is known as the Single Electricity Market or

SEM. The SEM includes a centralised liquid spot market where electricity is bought and sold.

Suppliers purchase their requirements in half hour periods and pay the System Marginal Price

(SMP) in each half hour.

Between January and September 2018, the average SMP price for 2018 was 32% higher than

the average price during the same period in 2017 and 50% higher than the average price during

the same period in 2016. For electricity the average SMP is €60.42 per MWh in 2018 (between

January and September). For the same period in 2017, the average price was €45.64 per MWh,

whereas for the same period in 2016 it was €37.62 per MWh.

The figure below shows the average monthly price of electricity in the SEM between 2014 and

2018, along with the average price across each year.

Figure 2.1: SMP €/MWh (Jan 2012 – September 2018)

€ -

€ 10.00

€ 20.00

€ 30.00

€ 40.00

€ 50.00

€ 60.00

€ 70.00

€ 80.00

€ 90.00

€ 100.00

Jan

-12

May

-12

Sep

-12

Jan

-13

May

-13

Sep

-13

Jan

-14

May

-14

Sep

-14

Jan

-15

May

-15

Sep

-15

Jan

-16

May

-16

Sep

-16

Jan

-17

May

-17

Sep

-17

Jan

-18

May

-18

Sep

-18

SMP

Eu

ro/M

Wh

SMP €/MWh

SMP

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018


17

The National Balancing Point (NBP) is the trading hub for gas in Britain and sets the Irish

wholesale gas price. The price of gas on the NBP in pence per therm of gas increased towards

the end of 2017 and Q3 2018. As of September 2018, the average price of gas for 2018 was 40%

higher than the average price during the same period in 2017, and 58% higher than the average

price during the same period in 2016.

The figure below shows the change in average monthly day ahead gas prices over time at the

NBP. It also shows the average price between 2014 and 2018.

Figure 2.2: NBP Day Ahead Gas (€/therm) (Jan 2012 – September 2018)

The period January to September 2018 average for NBP gas (Day-ahead) is 67 cent/therm in

2018. For 2017, the average NBP price was 51 cent/therm. For 2016 the average was 42

cent/therm.

2.2 Domestic Electricity Prices

In order for a domestic electricity customer to accurately compare prices between suppliers, the

comparison of the estimated annual bill using the current typical consumption value of 4,200kWhs

across suppliers, is the best measure.

In Q3 2018 there were seven suppliers offering both standard and discounted plans for domestic

electricity, along with PrePayPower and Pinergy who offered PAYG plans exclusively. BEenergy

entered the domestic electricity market in Q2 2017 offering 24 hour and night saver tariffs. Note

that the estimated annual bill for Lifestyle Choice PAYG customers includes an additional supplier

service charge which is reflected in the price.

€ -

€ 0.20

€ 0.40

€ 0.60

€ 0.80

€ 1.00

€ 1.20

Jan

-12

May

-12

Sep

-12

Jan

-13

May

-13

Sep

-13

Jan

-14

May

-14

Sep

-14

Jan

-15

May

-15

Sep

-15

Jan

-16

May

-16

Sep

-16

Jan

-17

May

-17

Sep

-17

Jan

-18

May

-18

Sep

-18

Gas

Eu

ro/t

her

m

NBP Day Ahead Gas (€/therm)

NBP

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018


18

BeEnergy offered the cheapest standard domestic estimated annual bill at the end of Q3 2018.

BeEnergy is a new supplier having entered the market in 2017. This highlights the benefits of new

entrants into the market for customer prices. The most competitive discounted estimated annual

bill at the end of Q3 2018 was offered by Energia.

Standard Domestic Electricity Estimated Annual Bills (based on typical annual consumption of 4,200 kWhs)

June 2018 September 2018

Electric Ireland €1,006.48 €1,062.56

Energia €1,093.90 €1,176.09

Bord Gáis Energy €1,027.36 €1,087.13

SSE Airtricity €1,052.45 €1,113.28

Panda power €1,071.81 €1,119.73

Just Energy €951.00 €1,092.53

BEenergy €964.59 €964.59

PAYG Plans

PrePayPower €1,149.43 €1,224.74

Pinergy €1,026.01 €1,144.26


Table 2.1: Standard Domestic Electricity Annual Average Bills

Most Competitive Discounted Domestic Electricity Estimated Annual Bills (based on typical annual consumption of 4,200 kWhs)


Electric Ireland €965.01 €1,018.71

Energia €835.78 €897.21

Bord Gáis Energy €818.56 €914.08

SSE Airtricity €919.04 €920.22

Panda power €909.86 €948.00

Just Energy €888.63 €947.24

BEenergy €964.59 €964.59

PAYG Plans

PrePayPower €1,149.43 €1,224.74

Pinergy €1,026.01 €1,144.26


Table 2.2: Most Competitive Discounted Domestic Electricity Estimated Annual Bills

2.3 Domestic Gas Prices

In order for a domestic gas customer to accurately compare prices between suppliers, the

comparison of the estimated annual bill using the current typical consumption value of

11,000kWhs across suppliers, is the best measure.

In Q3 2018 there were seven suppliers offering both standard and discounted plans for domestic

gas, Flogas and BGE also offered PAYG plans. Note that some gas suppliers charge an

installation fee for PAYG gas meters which is not included here.


19

Just Energy offered the cheapest standard domestic estimated annual bill at the end of Q3 2018.

Just Energy is a new supplier having entered the market in 2017. As in the case of electricity, this

highlights the benefits of new entrants into the market for customer prices. The most competitive

discounted estimated annual bill at the end of Q3 2018 was offered by Just Energy.

Standard Domestic Gas Estimated Annual Bills (based on typical annual consumption of 11,000 kWhs)


Electric Ireland €735.07 €790.10

Energia €783.66 €880.45


Flogas €769.40 €769.20

Just Energy €681.81 €749.67


Panda Power €778.37 €764.07

PAYG Plans

Flogas €769.40 €861.60


PrePayPower €810.84 €810.84

Table 2.3: Standard Domestic Gas Estimated Annual Bills

Most Competitive Discounted Domestic Gas Estimated Annual Bills (based on typical annual consumption of 11,000 kWhs)

Gas June 2018 September 2018

Electric Ireland €702.24 €754.64

Energia €686.68 €770.89


Flogas €595.97 €702.30

Just Energy €681.81 €699.66


Panda Power €714.57 €743.79

Table 2.4: Most Competitive Discounted Domestic Gas Estimated Annual Bills

2.4 Domestic Dual Fuel Prices

In Q3 2018 Electric Ireland, Energia, Bord Gáis Energy, SSE Airtricity, Just Energy, PrePayPower,

and Panda Power offered dual fuel plans to customers with price discounts for domestic

customers that avail of both services from the same supplier.

Energia offered the cheapest dual fuel estimated annual bill at the end of Q3 2018. Two new

suppliers entered the duel fuel market in 2017, improving customer choice in this segment.

Highest Discounted Dual Fuel Estimated Annual Bills



Energia €1,455.11 €1,590.78

Bord Gáis Energy €1,510.00 €1637.70


20

SSE Airtricity €1,593.31 €1,595.95

Just Energy €1,507.76 €1,626.90

PrePayPower €1,960.27 €2,035.58

Panda Power €1,531.57 €1,593.98

Table 2.5: Highest Discounted Dual Fuel Estimated Annual Bills

2.5 Changes in Standing Charges and Unit Charges over

Time

Final electricity and gas bills are made up of a number of components; standing charges and unit

rates are charged and some suppliers may also levy other charges such as those associated with

pre-payment meters.

Standing charges for electricity and gas plans have not changed significantly over time. For

electricity, they have fluctuated between an average of approximately 34c per day and 37c per

day3 depending on the supplier. These charges should be seen in tandem with any other recurring

fixed charge that a supplier may charge customers.

Competition and discounts are usually associated with the unit charge for supplier’s plans. Figures

2.3 - 2.6 show the changes in electricity and gas standard and discount unit rates over time per

supplier and do not take into account standing charges or any other charges that a supplier may

charge customers. Overall for standard and discounted plans in both markets, unit rates have

increased from the end of 2017 and Q3 2018.

Figure 2.3: Electricity standard unit rate over time

3 This average excludes the standing charges associated with PAYG plans as additional service charges are also included.

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

c/kW

h

Electricity standard unit rate over time

Electric Ireland SSE Airtricity Bord Gais Energy

Energia PrePayPower Pinergy


21

Figure 2.4: Electricity discount unit rate over time

Figure 2.5: Gas standard unit rate over time

Figure 2.6: Gas discount unit rate over time

10

12

14

16

18

c/kW

h

Electricity discount unit rate over time

Electric Ireland SSE Airtricity Bord Gais Energy Energia

PrePayPower Pinergy Panda

3.5

4

4.5

5

5.5

6

c/kW

h

Gas standard unit rate overtime

Electric Ireland SSE Airtricity Bord Gais Energy Energia Flogas

3

3.5

4

4.5

5

5.5

c/kW

h

Gas discount unit rate over time

Electric Ireland SSE Airtricity Bord Gais Energy Energia Flogas


22

2.6 Number of Customers on Different Plans – Electricity

Under CRU’s extended market monitoring framework, data on the top ten contracts for each

supplier in terms of customer numbers is submitted to the CRU on a quarterly basis.

This includes data on the number of customers on each plan, the unit charge and standing charge,

total consumption for the period, the features of each plan and the annual average bill. This

analysis does not include all customers in the market but provides a good indication of the number

of customers on the top ten plans in the market.

Electricity Gas

Number of customers reported on top 10 plans for Q3 2018

1,709,980 370,980

Total number of customers in the market 2,070,644 667,700

% of total customers 83% 56%

Table 2.6: Customers on top 10 plans, Q3 2018

This section presents some analysis carried out with data for Q3 2018, looking at the proportion

of customers on different ranges of plans based on their combined unit and standing charges

compiled from information collected from suppliers on their top 10 plans. The annual average bills

presented here are based on 4,200kWh of consumption.

Figure 2.7: Customers on ranges of electricity bills, Q3 2018

Figure 2.7 shows the number of customers on a range of plans with different annual bills for Q3

2018 (as reported through market monitoring). This data indicates that the majority of customers

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

€600-700 €700-800 €800-900 €900-1,000 €1,000-1,100

Customers on ranges of electricity bills (pre taxes and levies, 4200kWh annual consumption)


23

in the market, covered by the top 10 plans, are on plans within the higher range of annual average

bills.

This information is based on data received for Q3 2018 from suppliers detailing their top 10

electricity plans, based on the number of customers on each plan. This means that not every

customer in the market is detailed here and the data is only representative of the market as a

whole.

Analysis suggests that most customers are not on the highest discounted plan available, and in

many cases the discounted plans with the most customers have an annual average bill that is

only slightly below that of the standard tariff bill. It is possible, however, that customers might

choose their electricity or gas plan based on criteria other than charges, therefore, these non-tariff

elements can also be considered important.

2.7 Number of Customers on Different Plans- Gas

Figure 2.8: Customers on ranges of gas bills, Q3 2018

Figure 2.8 shows the % of customers on different ranges of annual average bills in Q3 2018 (as

reported through market monitoring). This information is based on data received for this period

from suppliers detailing their top 10 gas plans, based on the number of customers on each plan.

2.8 Number of Customers Defaulting to Standard Tariffs

Data is received from suppliers on a yearly basis on the overall number of customers who

defaulted to standard tariffs. The indicator refers to the automatic default of a current customer at

the end of a contract to a tariff that does not have a new customer discount, or a contract term

associated with it.

0.60%

6.90%4%

77%

11%

0.00%

10.00%

20.00%

30.00%

40.00%

50.00%

60.00%

70.00%

80.00%

90.00%

€400-550 €550-600 €600-650 €650-700 €700+

% o

f custo

mers

Customers on ranges of gas bills (pre- taxes, based on 11,000kWh consumption)


24

Figure 2.9: % of customers defaulting to standard tariffs in 2017

% of customers defaulting to standard tariffs in 2017

Domestic Electricity

Small Business Electricity

Domestic Gas

IC Gas

% of total customers 8.90% 5.23% 8.89% 3.72%

% customers who switched in the last 12 months

defaulting to standard tariff 65.23% 26.54% 49.31% 18.37%

Table 8.8: % of customers defaulting to standard tariffs in 2017

In 2017, approximately 65% of domestic electricity customers that had switched supplier in the

last 12 months defaulted to a standard tariff, when their initial discount period ended. This

amounted to 8.90% of all domestic electricity customers.

Approximately 9% of domestic gas customers defaulted to standard tariffs, at the end of a discount

period, amounting to 50% of domestic gas customers who switched supplier in the last 12 months.

This amounted to approximately 8.9% of all domestic gas customers

While this is a low percentage of customers overall, taken as a percentage of customers on fixed

term discounted plans this indicates that a large number of customers who were active in the

market did not renegotiate their contract or switch in 2017. This suggests low levels of repeat

switching in the market. Lower numbers of business electricity and gas customers defaulted to

standard tariffs, however a significant proportion of business customers negotiate bespoke

contracts with suppliers.


25

2.9 Features of Plans

In 2018 there was a large variety of payment methods available and different features across

different plans. Features included cash based and credit offers, green offers, loyalty schemes and

device based offers. These features are listed in the table below.

Energy based

services/Free items

▪ Climote heating control ▪ Nest learning thermostat ▪ GE Led Light Bulbs ▪ In Home Displays ▪ Boiler Services ▪ Green offers ▪ Hive Active

Cashback offers &

Points

▪ €50-€150 cashback ▪ 1000-4000 Tesco points ▪ €20-€50 free top ups ▪ Access to loyalty schemes ▪ €120 credit on first or second bill

Discounts ▪ 2%-20% Gas discounts ▪ 1%-26% Electricity discounts ▪ Duel fuel discount bundles

Payment Methods

▪ PAYG ▪ Direct Debit ▪ Bank Transfer ▪ Phone ▪ Cheque ▪ An Post

Unit Charges and

Standing Charges

▪ Standing charges do not vary widely ▪ Most discounts are off unit charges

Contract terms ▪ 12/24 month contract terms with exit fees ▪ Most customers default to standard tariffs

Table 2.8: Features of Plans available


26

2.10 Summary – Electricity and Gas Retail Prices

▪ A total of 7 suppliers announced price increases in the first half of 2018, based on

increased wholesale costs and regulated charges. Four suppliers have announced further

price increases (one supplier at the end of Q3 2018 and three suppliers during Q4 2018)

becoming effective in Q4 2018. Supplier’s increases and effective dates for tariff changes

are outlined in this report.

▪ The All-Island wholesale electricity price (System Marginal Price, SMP) from 2012 to June

2018 is presented in this report. Between January and September 2018, the average SMP

price was 32% higher than the average price during the same period in 2017 and 50%

higher than the average price during the same period in 2016.

▪ The wholesale gas price at the UK trading hub, which sets the wholesale gas price in

Ireland, also increased in 2017 and 2018. As of September 2018, the average price of gas

for 2018 was 40% higher than the average price during the same period in 2017, and 58%

higher than the average price during the same period in 2016.

▪ In September 2018, the least expensive estimated annual bill in electricity (based on

typical consumption of 4,200kWhs) for a standard plan was with BeEnergy at €964.59.

The least expensive discounted plan was with Energia with an estimated annual bill of

€897.21.

▪ The least expensive estimated annual bill for a standard plan in gas (based on typical

annual consumption of 11,000kWhs) was with Just Energy at €749.67. The least

expensive discounted plan was with Just Energy with an estimated annual bill of €699.66.

▪ In 2018 Electric Ireland, Energia, Bord Gáis Energy, Just Energy, Panda Power and SSE

Airtricity offered dual fuel plans to customers with price discounts for domestic customers

that avail of both services from the same supplier. The least expensive dual fuel offer was

with Energia with an estimated annual bill of €1,590.78.

27

MARKET

DEVELOPMENTS

MARKET DEVELOPMENTS

28

3. Market Share – Domestic Electricity

3.1 Domestic Electricity Market Share by Customer Numbers and MWhs

This section outlines the market share of each supplier for Q3 2018 in terms of customer numbers

and consumption in MWhs. The electricity market was deregulated based on market shares in

terms of consumption, therefore this metric is considered to be more important for market

monitoring purposes. The percentage change in market share from the last quarter and over the

last year is also presented.

Figure 3.1: Q3 2018 Domestic Electricity Market Share (%)

Q3 2018 Domestic Market Share

Sites MWhs

Electric Ireland 1,103,428 879,257

SSE Airtricity 258,704 252,673

Bord Gáis Energy 342,262 342,400

PrePayPower 139,070 119,485

Energia 150,173 158,625

Pinergy 28,580 24,680

Panda 38,235 41,623

Others 10,192 12,800

Total 2,070,644 1,831,543

Table 3.1: Number of sites and MWhs per supplier

Domestic Market Share

(a) Customer Nos (b) MWhs

53.29

12.49

16.53

6.72

7.25

1.38

0.491.85

48.01

13.80

18.69

6.52

8.66

1.35

0.702.27

Electric Ireland

SSE Airtricity

Bord Gáis Energy

PrePayPower

Energia

Pinergy

Others

Panda

MARKET DEVELOPMENTS

29

Domestic Customers - change in market share

Q2 2018 – Q3 2018 Q3 2017 – Q3 2018

Sites MWhs Sites MWhs

Electric Ireland -0.45% -0.69% -1.55% -1.25%

SSE Airtricity -0.39% -0.48% -1.47% -1.93%

Bord Gáis Energy 0.20% 0.50% 0.34% 0.34%

PrePayPower 0.17% 0.39% 0.51% 0.43%

Energia 0.15% -0.05% 1.16% 1.42%

Pinergy 0.01% -0.09% 0.03% -0.08%

Panda 0.20% 0.33% 0.62% 0.76%

Others 0.11% 0.09% 0.36% 0.31%

Table 3.2: % change in market share for Q3 2017 – Q3 2018

3.2 Summary – Market Share – Domestic Electricity

▪ End of Q3 2018, Electric Ireland had the largest domestic electricity market share, with

48.01% of the market in terms of consumption, with its market share continuing to fall

slowly. This was followed by Bord Gáis Energy with 18.69%, SSE Airtricity with 13.80%,

Energia with 8.66%, PrePayPower with 6.52%, Panda with 2.27% and Pinergy with

1.35%.

▪ Between Q3 2017 and Q3 2018, SSE Airtricity’s market share decreased by 1.93% in

terms of consumption. PrePay Power increased its market share by 1.43%, the largest

increase during the period.

MARKET DEVELOPMENTS

30

3.3. Market Share – Wholesale Electricity4

The wholesale market is considered below for the All-Island Single Electricity market for Q3 2018.

The pie charts give the scheduled generation, the actual generation for electricity generators on

the island of Ireland, and the interconnectors between Great Britain and the island of Ireland.

Figure 3.2: Q3 2018 Market Scheduled Generation

3.4 Summary – Market Share – Wholesale Electricity

▪ At the end of Q3 2018 ESB were the largest generators of electricity in the Single

Electricity Market with 42% of total generation. They were followed by SSE Airtricity

with 16% and Viridian with 12%.

4 Information in this section is drawn from SEM Monitoring Reports

Wholesale Market Share

Market Scheduled Generation

0%

4%5%

3%

42%

3%

16%

6%

12%

9%AES

Aughinish

Bord Gáis

Bord na Mona

ESB

Interconnector

SSE

Tynagh

Viridian

Others

MARKET DEVELOPMENTS

31

MARKET DEVELOPMENTS

32

4. Market Share – Domestic Gas

4.1 Domestic Gas Market Share by Customer Numbers

and GWhs


and consumption in MWhs. The percentage change in market share from the last quarter and

over the last year is also presented.

Figure 4.1: Q3 2018 Domestic Gas Market Share (%)

Table 4.1: Number of sites and GWhs per supplier

Q3 2018 Domestic Market Share

Sites GWhs

Bord Gáis Energy 303,806 242

SSE Airtricity 89,725 75

Electric Ireland 139,257 102

Flogas 28,468 27

Energia 53,370 44

Others 53,074 36

Total 667,700 526

MARKET DEVELOPMENTS

33

Table 4.2: % Change in Market Share

4.2 Summary – Market Share – Domestic Gas

▪ End of Q3 2018, Bord Gáis Energy had the largest market share in terms of customer

numbers, with 45.50% of the domestic gas market, followed by Electric Ireland with

20.86%, SSE Airtricity with 13.44%, Energia with 7.99%, PrePayPower with 5.97% and

Flogas with 4.26%.

▪ Between Q3 2017 and Q3 2018 Bord Gáis Energy lost 2.76% of market share in terms

of customer numbers. PrePayPower increased its market share by 2.34%.

Domestic Gas- change in market share

Q2 2018 – Q3 2018 Q3 2017 – Q3 2018

Sites GWhs Sites GWh

Bord Gáis Energy -0.41% 0.06% -2.76% -2.86%

SSE Airtricity -0.34% -0.47% -0.97% -0.72%

Electric Ireland -0.05%

-0.58% -0.58% -0.65%

Flogas -0.49% -0.70% -1.59% -1.52%

Energia 0.26% 0.05% 1.57% 1.82%

Others 1.02% 1.64% 4.32% 3.89%

MARKET DEVELOPMENTS

34

5. Customer Switching and Renegotiations

5.1 Electricity, Gas and Dual Fuel Switching in Q3 2018

Customer switching is a key indicator of retail competition and supplier activity within the retail

market. This section contains data on customer switching activity in Q3 2018.

Figure 5.1: Overall Switching in Electricity, Q3 2017 – Q3 2018

The total number of customers switching in electricity was 78,013 in Q3 2018, representing a

3.32% switching rate. This represented a decrease in switching of 4.41% from the previous

quarter, Q2 2018, where there were 81,615 switches and a decrease in switching of 2.80% from

the same quarter of the previous year (Q3 2017) where there were 80,260 switches.

Month Total Number of Switches

Jul-17 25,638

Aug-17 27,124

Sep-17 27,498

Oct-17 25,536

Nov-17 31,488

Dec-17 25,411

Jan-18 25,507

Feb-18 28,898

Mar-18 25,461

Apr-18 26,964

May-18 28,772

Jun-18 25,879

Jul-18 24,963

Aug-18 27,584

Sep-18 25,466

Table 5.1: Total Monthly Switches in Electricity, Q3 2017 – Q3 2018

-5000

-3000

-1000

1000

3000

5000

7000

Net

Sw

itc

hin

g

Net Switching of Customers Per Supplier (July 2017 to September 2018)

Electric Ireland Energia SSE Airtricity Bord Gáis Energy

PrePayPower Others Pinergy Panda

MARKET DEVELOPMENTS

35

Figure 5.2: Overall Switching in Gas, Q3 2017 – Q3 2018

The total number of customers switching in gas was 34,155 in Q3 2018, representing a 4.92%

switching rate. This represented a decrease in switching of 0.55% from the previous quarter, Q2

2018, during which time there were 34,343 customer switches, and an increase in switching of

8.38% from the same quarter of the previous year (Q3 2017) where there were 31,514 switches.

Month Total Number of Switches

Apr-17 10,261

May-17 10,629

Jun-17 9,986

Jul-17 9,522

Aug-17 10,639

Sep-17 11,353

Oct-17 9,743

Nov-17 12,587

Dec-17 9,172

Jan-18 11,519

Feb-18 12,288

Mar-18 11,525

Apr-18 11,519

May-18 12,139

Jun-18 10,685

Jul-18 11,201

Aug-18 12,036

Sep-18 10,918

Table 5.2: Total Switches in Gas, Q3 2017 – Q3 2018

-4,000

-3,000

-2,000

-1,000

0

1,000

2,000

3,000

Ne

t S

wit

ich

ing

Net Switiching of Customers per Supplier (July 2017 to September 2018)

SSE Airtricity Bord Gáis Energy Electric Ireland Energia

Flogas Gazprom VAYU PrePayPower

Just Energy Panda Power

MARKET DEVELOPMENTS

36

The CRU has also begun to collect data on the number of dual fuel switches per month. A dual

fuel customer is defined as a site that has both gas and electricity accounts with the same supplier

(whether on a specific dual fuel tariff or not).

The 'dual fuel switching' indicator refers to the number of dual fuel customers (measured by

MPRN/GPRN) that switched, either one account or both gas and electricity, per month. The data

is provided by suppliers to the CRU.

Figure 5.3: Domestic Electricity, Gas, and Dual Fuel Switches, Q2 2016 – Q3 2018

Dual Fuel Switches

Jul-17 Aug-

17 Sep-17

Oct-17 Nov-

17 Dec-17

Jan-18

Feb-18

Mar-18

Apr-18

May-18

Jun-18

Jul-18 Aug-

18 Sep-18


2,614 1,791 2,571 2,592 1,916 1,360 1,679 3,372 2,264 2,830 2,931 2,500 2,919 3,318 2,919

Domestic Gas 1,502 1,791 2,571 1,161 2,149 1,257 1,907 1,913 2,193 1,937 2,256 2,098 2,059 2,566 2,176

Domestic Dual Fuel

4,469 5,960 4,235 4,462 7,247 4,357 6,728 7,146 5,432 5,503 6,993 5,497 6,552 7,355 6,646

Total Domestic Switches

8,585 9,542 9,377 8,215 11,312 6,974 10,314 12,431 9,889 10,270 12,180 10,095 11,530 13,239 11,741

Electricity Switches

25,638 27,124 27,498 25,536 31,488 25,411 25,507 28,898 25,461 26,964 28,772 25,879 24,963 27,584 25,466

Gas Switches 9,522 10,639 11,353 9,743 12,587 9,172 11,519 12,288 11,525 11,519 12,139 10,685 11,201 12,036 10,918

Total Switches 35,160 37,763 38,851 35,279 44,075 34,583 37,026 41,186 36,986 38,483 40,911 36,564 36,164 39,620 36,384

% dual fuel 24% 25% 24% 23% 26% 20% 28% 30% 27% 27% 30% 28% 32% 33% 32%

Table 5.3: Dual Fuel Switches, Q3 2017 – Q3 2018

0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

7000

8000

Ap

r-1

6

May

-16

Jun

-16

Jul-

16

Au

g-1

6

Sep

-16

Oct

-16

No

v-1

6

Dec

-16

Jan

-17

Feb

-17

Mar

-17

Ap

r-1

7

May

-17

Jun

-17

Jul-

17

Au

g-1

7

Sep

-17

Oct

-17

No

v-1

7

Dec

-17

Jan

-18

Feb

-18

Mar

-18

Ap

r-1

8

May

-18

Jun

-18

Jul-

18

Au

g-1

8

Sep

-18N

um

ber

of

du

al f

uel

cu

sto

mer

sw

itch

es

Domestic Electricity Domestic Dual Fuel Domestic Gas

MARKET DEVELOPMENTS

37

The total number of dual fuel switches in Q2 2018 was 36,510, corresponding to approximately

33% of all switches in the quarter. This represents an increase in switching of 12% in dual fuel

switches from Q2 2018, during which time there were 32,545 dual fuel switches.

5.2 Renegotiations

This section presents new market monitoring data on renegotiations in the electricity and gas retail

markets from July 2018 to September 2018. Internal switching or renegotiations refer to situations

where a new contract term, tariff or terms & conditions have been negotiated between a customer

and their current supplier. These can be initiated either by the supplier or the customer. Data on

renegotiations complements that collected on switching and helps to provide a more complete

picture of customer engagement and the options open to customers.

This analysis looks at the number of successfully completed renegotiated contracts5 (regardless

of whether initiated by the customer or the supplier or of the number of times an individual

customer renegotiated)6.

Figure 5.4: Successful Domestic and Non-Domestic Electricity Renegotiations

The total number of internal switches in domestic electricity in Q3 2018 was 46,138 compared to

45,377 in Q2 2018, representing an increase of 0.016%. The total number of internal switches in

non-domestic electricity in Q3 2018 was 7,898 compared to 9,027 in Q2 2018, representing a

decrease of 0.13%.

5 New data captured under the market monitoring framework may be subject to change 6 Data which was previously pending from suppliers on renegotiations has been submitted which will impact on figures compared to previous reports.

0

2000

4000

6000

8000

10000

12000

14000

16000

18000

20000

Total Number of Successful Renegotiations

Domestic Electricity Non Domestic Electricity

MARKET DEVELOPMENTS

38

Figure 5.5: Successful Domestic and Non-Domestic Gas Renegotiations

The total number of internal switches in domestic gas in Q3 2018 was 16,265, compared to 15,667

in Q2 2018, representing an increase of 4%. The total number of internal switches in non-domestic

gas in Q3 2018 was 1,340 compared to 1,869 in Q2 2018, representing a decrease of 28%.

In Q3 2018, approximately 2.23% of domestic electricity customers and 2.44% of domestic gas

customers renegotiated their contracts with their current supplier. In the non-domestic markets

approximately 2.82% of electricity customers and 4.99% of gas customers renegotiated their

contracts with their current supplier.

In total, 2.30% of domestic and non-domestic electricity customers and 2.53% of domestic and

non-domestic gas customers renegotiated their contracts with their current supplier. When added

to the numbers of customers who switched supplier in Q3 2018, it can be concluded that 5.62%

of electricity and 7.45% of gas customers looked for a better energy plan through either switching

supplier or renegotiating with their current supplier. In comparison to Q2 2018, the number of

domestic and non-domestic customers that looked for a better deal in Q3 2018 decreased by

2.92% for electricity and by 0.23% for gas. When compared to the same quarter of the previous

year (Q3 2017), the number of customers that looked for a better deal in Q3 2018 increased by

2.84% for electricity and by 10.08% for gas.

0

2000

4000

6000

8000

Total Number of Successful Renegotiations

Domestic Gas Non-Domestic Gas

MARKET DEVELOPMENTS

39

5.3 Summary – Customer Switching and Renegotiations

▪ The total number of customers switching in electricity was 78,013 in Q3 2018. This

represented a decrease in switching of 4.41% from Q2 2018, where there were 81,615

switches.

▪ The total number of customers switching in gas was 34,155 in Q3 2018. This

represented a decrease in switching of 0.55% from Q2 2018, during which time there

were 34,343 customer switches.

▪ Between July and September 2018, dual fuel switches represented 33% of total

switches.

▪ The total number of internal switches in domestic electricity in Q3 2018 was 46,138

compared to 45,377 in Q2 2018. The total number of internal switches in domestic gas

in Q3 2018 was 16,265, compared to 15,667 in Q2 2018.

▪ 5.62% of electricity and 7.45% of gas customers looked for a better energy plan in Q3

2018 through either switching supplier or renegotiating with their current supplier. This

represents a decrease of 2.92% for electricity and 0.23% for gas compared to Q2 2018

and an increase of 2.84% for electricity and 10.08% for gas compared to Q3 2017.

ENERGY CUSTOMER PROTECTION

40

ENERGY

CUSTOMER

PROTECTION


41

6. Financial Hardship PAYG

This section looks at the trend in the installation of Pay As You go (PAYG) meters. Prepayment

meters are split into two types; financial hardship PAYG meters and lifestyle choice PAYG meters.

PAYG financial hardship meters are offered in the domestic electricity and gas markets to

customers experiencing financial difficulty paying their bills. The cost of the meter and its

installation are socialised and the customer does not have to pay anything extra for the meter

itself.

If a customer is in arrears, they cannot be disconnected for reasons of non-payment of account

unless they have first been offered a PAYG meter by their supplier. In instances where it would

not be appropriate to offer a PAYG meter, such as the customer not being able to use the meter

or where there is no suitable location for the meter in the premises, the supplier must offer an

alternative.

The Codes of Practice require fair and robust customer processes to be in place for the installation

of such meters. Currently Bord Gáis Energy, Electric Ireland, Energia, Flogas and SSE Airtricity

provide PAYG meters for financial hardship in the electricity and gas domestic markets.

A number of suppliers also offer lifestyle choice prepayment options in the electricity sector

(Electric Ireland, Pinergy and PrePayPower). Customers may find such meters useful to manage

their consumption and spending on electricity.

For gas, GNI provides all the PAYG meters, both for financial hardship and lifestyle choices. If a

customer wishes to avail of a lifestyle choice meter in gas they obtain such from GNI through their

supplier. CRU will continue to monitor the installation of PAYG financial hardship meters in its

quarterly reports.

Electricity PAYG Financial Hardship Installs7

Q1

2016

Q2

2016

Q3

2016

Q4

2016

Q1

2017

Q2

2017

Q3

2017

Q4

2017

Q1

2018

Q2

2018

Q3

2018

Total Cumulative

Installs 77,101 78,742 80,072 81,026 81,873 82,863 83,828 84,395 84,828 85,352 86,005

Total Quarterly

Installs 1,921 1,641 1,330 954 847 990 965 567 433 524 653

Table 5.1: Total and cumulative number of electricity PAYG installs for reasons of

financial hardship

7 Numbers for the period Q2 2017 – Q2 2018 had previously included numbers of token meters being phased out and replaced with keypad meters. These replacements would not be classed as new installs and therefore have been removed from the total numbers presented.


42

Table 5.2 Total and cumulative number of gas PAYG installs

The total number of PAYG financial hardship installs by ESBN declined significantly over time.

The number of PAYG installs for gas also decreased over time, the majority being related to

lifestyle choice customers.

Figure 5.1: Total number of PAYG installs between Q1 2014 and Q3 2018

Table 5.3 details the electricity PAYG meter installation rate per supplier. This was calculated by

dividing the number of meter installs per quarter by the number of customers of each supplier per

quarter.

0

1,000

2,000

3,000

4,000

5,000

6,000

7,000

Q12014

Q22014

Q32014

Q42014

Q12015

Q22015

Q32015

Q42015

Q12016

Q22016

Q32016

Q42016

Q12017

Q22017

Q32017

Q42017

Q12018

Q22018

Q32018

Total Number of PAYG Installs Q1 2014 - Q3 2018

Electricity PAYG Installs Gas PAYG Installs

Gas PAYG Installs

Q1

2016

Q2

2016

Q3

2016

Q4

2016

Q1

2017

Q2

2017

Q3

2017

Q4

2017

Q1

2018

Q2

2018

Q3

2018

Total Cumulative

Installs 100,749 101,736 102,499 102,940 103,459 104,021 104,360 104,602 104,852 105,111 105,260

Total Quarterly

Financial

Hardship Installs

703 987 763 441 542 539 339 242 250 259 149

% of quarterly

installs for

financial

hardship

70.09% 77.35% 70.98% 41.25% 32.97% 22.08% 18.02% 13.95% 15.59% 15.26% 9.99%


43

Electricity PAYG Financial Hardship Install Rate

Electric Ireland

SSE Airtricity Bord Gáis

Energy Energia

Q1 2015 0.24% 0.20% 0.16% 0.02%

Q2 2015 0.18% 0.19% 0.24% 0.03%

Q3 2015 0.13% 0.13% 0.17% 0.02%

Q4 2015 0.10% 0.11% 0.12% 0.01%

Q1 2016 0.11% 0.03% 0.02% 0.00%

Q2 2016 0.08% 0.02% 0.03% 0.00%

Q3 2016 0.07% 0.07% 0.09% 0.02%

Q4 2016 0.05% 0.05% 0.07% 0.02%

Q1 2017 0.06% 0.06% 0.07% 0.02%

Q2 2017 0.06% 0.05% 0.07% 0.01%

Q3 2017 0.06% 0.03% 0.06% 0.02%

Q4 2017 0.03% 0.02% 0.04% 0.01%

Q1 2018 0.02% 0.03% 0.02% 0.01%

Q2 2018 0.03% 0.03% 0.04% 0.001%

Q3 2018 0.02% 0.04% 0.04% 0.011%

Table 5.3: Electricity PAYG installation rate

Table 5.4 details the Gas PAYG financial hardship meter installation rate per supplier.

Gas PAYG Financial Hardship Install Rate

Electric Ireland SSE Airtricity Bord Gáis

Energy Flogas

Q1 2015 0.05% 0.16% 0.12% 0.05%

Q2 2015 0.21% 0.29% 0.32% 0.17%

Q3 2015 0.25% 0.24% 0.21% 0.15%

Q4 2015 0.13% 0.13% 0.10% 0.09%

Q1 2016 0.14% 0.16% 0.09% 0.04%

Q2 2016 0.22% 0.27% 0.12% 0.03%

Q3 2016 0.14% 0.13% 0.11% 0.13%

Q4 2016 0.09% 0.07% 0.06% 0.07%

Q1 2017 0.12% 0.08% 0.08% 0.01%

Q2 2017 0.12% 0.06% 0.09% 0.04%

Q3 2017 0.05% 0.03% 0.07% 0.03%

Q4 2017 0.07% 0.02% 0.03% 0.02%

Q1 2018 0.07% 0.04% 0.04% 0.01%

Q2 2018 0.02% 0.05% 0.05% 0.05%

Q3 2018 0.02% 0.04% 0.05% 0.04%

Table 5.4: Gas PAYG installation rate


44

6.1 Summary – Financial Hardship PAYG

▪ The total number of electricity PAYG financial hardship installs in Q3 2018 was

653 compared to 965 in Q3 2017.

▪ The total number of gas PAYG installs in Q3 2018 was 1,492. 9.99% of these

were for financial hardship reasons. In the same period in 2017, 1,937 were

installed, with 18.02% for financial hardship reasons. This indicates that the

installs were being driven by lifestyle choice customers.


45

7. Debt Flagging

Where a customer requests to change to a new supplier, the customer’s existing supplier has the

facility to inform the new supplier if the customer has an outstanding debt, above the industry

thresholds approved by the CRU8.

The new supplier can then choose whether to proceed with or cancel the change of supplier (CoS)

request where this ‘debt flag’ has been raised. The debt flagging process has been in place since

October 2011 and CRU monitors the use of the debt flagging facility by both losing and gaining

suppliers on an on-going basis.

In Q3 2018 there were 575 debt flags in the domestic electricity market. The number of debt flags

has increased by 14% between Q3 2017 and Q3 2018 and by 9.9% between Q2 2018 and Q3

2018. The number of CoS requests cancelled as a result of a debt flag, has increased between

Q3 2017 and Q3 2018, both in total numbers and percentage of debt flags raised. The total

number and percentage of CoS requests cancelled as a result of a debt flag has decreased

between Q2 2018 and Q3 2018 from 161 to 150 and from 31% to 26% respectively, with a similar

trend being observed between Q3 2017 and Q3 2018.

Electricity

Debt Flags Q1

2016

Q2

2016

Q3

2016

Q4

2016

Q1

2017

Q2

2017

Q3

2017

Q4

2017

Q1

2018

Q2

2018

Q3

2018

Total Debt Flags 560 572 637 648 578 664 503 470 491 523 575

Total Debt Flags as % of Overall Switches

0.71% 0.70% 0.80% 0.85% 0.74% 0.90% 0.63% 0.57% 0.61% 0.64% 0.74%

Debt Flagged CoS Requests Cancelled

160 160 211 232 235 240 168 164 156 161 150

% of Debt Flagged CoS Requests Cancelled

29% 28% 33% 36% 41% 36% 33% 35% 32% 31% 26%

Debt Flagged CoS not cancelled

400 412 426 416 343 424 335 306 325 362 425

% of Debt Flagged CoS Requests not cancelled

71% 72% 67% 64% 59% 64% 67% 65% 68% 69% 74%

Table 7.1: Debt Flagging in Electricity Q1 2016 – Q3 2018

In the domestic gas market there were 614 debt flags in Q3 2018. The total number of debt flags

has increased by 54% between Q3 2017 and Q3 2018 and by 12% between Q2 2018 and Q3

8 Domestic threshold: ≥ €225 for > 60 days from due. Small business & unmetered supply: ≥ €600 for > 30 days from due. Medium sized business: ≥ €1,200 for > 30 days from due.


46

2018. The number of CoS requests cancelled, as a result of a debt flag, has increased between

Q3 2017 and Q3 2018, and between Q2 2018 and Q3 2018, both in total numbers and percentage

of debt flags raised. Of the debt flags raised the percentage that led to a refusal of a CoS request

increased by 4% between Q2 2018 and Q3 2018, from 46% to 48%.

Gas

Debt Flags Q1

2016 Q2

2016 Q3

2016 Q4

2016 Q1

2017 Q2

2017 Q3

2017 Q4

2017 Q1

2018 Q2

2018 Q3

2018

Total Debt Flags 180 319 384 241 317 440 398 305 321 549 614

Total Debt Flags as % of overall Switches

0.7% 1.4% 1.7% 1.1% 1.0% 1.4% 1.3% 1.0% 0.9% 1.6% 1.8%

Debt flagged CoS requests cancelled

84 176 194 99 126 197 146 99 125 254 294

% of Debt Flagged CoS Requests Cancelled

47% 55% 51% 41% 40% 45% 37% 32% 39% 46% 48%

Debt Flagged CoS not cancelled

96 143 190 142 191 243 252 206 196 295 320

% of Debt Flagged CoS Requests not cancelled

53% 45% 49% 59% 60% 55% 63% 68% 61% 54% 52%

Table 7.2: Debt Flagging in Gas Q1 2016 – Q3 2018

7.1 Summary – Debt Flagging

▪ There were 575 debt flags raised in the electricity market in Q3 2018, corresponding to

approximately 0.74% of all electricity CoS requests in the quarter. This represents a

9.9% increase from Q2 2018, when 523 debt flags were raised, corresponding to

approximately 0.64% of all CoS requests in that quarter.

▪ 150 debt flagged CoS requests were cancelled in the electricity market in Q3 2018,

which means that 26% of debt flags resulted in a CoS request being cancelled.

▪ There were 614 debt flags raised in the gas market in Q3 2018, corresponding to

approximately 1.8% of all gas CoS requests in that quarter. This represents a 12%

increase from Q2 2018, when 549 debt flags were raised, corresponding to

approximately 1.6% of all gas CoS requests in that quarter.

▪ 294 debt flagged CoS requests were cancelled in the gas market in Q2 2018, which

means that 48% of debt flags resulted in a CoS request being cancelled.


47

8. Disconnections

The disconnection/ de-energisation of a customer’s energy supply should always be the last resort

and all suppliers are required to offer a payment plan and prepayment solution to customers in

advance of proceeding to disconnect. This section analyses trends in disconnections in both

electricity and gas for Q3 2018.

In early 2014 CRU, in conjunction with industry and the Department of Communications, Energy

and Natural Resources9, reviewed the market processes to ascertain if more could be done in

further reducing disconnections (e.g. by increasing uptake of PAYG).

While this work was ongoing CRU imposed a moratorium on the disconnections, which was lifted

on 20th February 2014. In May 2014, a voluntary agreement was introduced by most energy

suppliers which saw them committing to never disconnect an engaging customer.

The requirement placed on suppliers to offer payment plans and financial hardship meters instead

of disconnecting customers in the first instance has also benefited those in financial difficulty. It is

likely that improving economic conditions in recent years has also contributed to a decrease in

disconnections.

8.1 Disconnections – Total

The total number of disconnections in Q3 2018 was 1,337 for electricity and 579 for gas. Figure

8.1 shows the total number of disconnections for non-payment of account (NPA) between 2011

and 2017. Table 8.1 shows the annual number of disconnections from 2011 to 2017 and the

number of disconnections in Q1 2018, Q2 2018, and Q3 2018.

Figure 8.1: Trend in NPA disconnections from 2011 – 2017

9 Since renamed to the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment


48

Total NPA

Disconnections 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Q1 2018 Q2 2018 Q3 2018

Electricity 17,794 17,441 12,391 8,731 7,783 6,789 4,626 1,129 1,454 1,337

Gas 4,560 7,558 6,279 3,998 3,542 2,787 2,144 300 536 579

Table 8.1: Total (domestic and business) disconnections in electricity and gas 2011 – Q3

2018

8.2 Disconnections - Electricity Market

CRU receives data on electricity disconnections 10 that were completed for non-payment of

account reasons on a monthly basis from ESBN11. This section analyses the data on validated

electricity non-payment of account (NPA) disconnections12.

Table 8.2: Total domestic disconnections by supplier, July 2017 – September 2018

10 This data has been validated by suppliers in advance of publication. 11 NPA can cover customers in arrears that have been disconnected because they cannot pay due to financial hardship or disconnected customers who choose not to pay debt. Currently such customers cannot be distinguished in the data. This NPA data does not include data on self-disconnections. This data includes disconnections of PAYG customers due to fraud/theft. 12 PrePayPower states that, as a prepay supplier, it only disconnects in situations where they suspect a site of being vacant or in instances of fraud based on an analysis of vend and consumption data.

Total Domestic disconnections per supplier

Electric Ireland

SSE Airtricity

Bord Gais

Pre Pay Power

Energia Pinergy Panda Total

Jul-17 105 52 54 41 22 - 7 281

Aug-17 129 65 42 30 32 - 18 316

Sep-17 108 65 48 28 54 1 11 315

Oct-17 59 32 22 9 32 5 5 164

Nov-17 157 43 52 36 47 11 27 373

Dec-17 27 2 17 4 9 63 2 124

Jan-18 99 42 37 13 33 13 14 251

Feb-18 117 57 49 32 21 35 9 320

Mar-18 154 28 34 16 34 34 8 295

Apr-18 172 70 65 13 35 25 7 387

May-18 204 95 35 21 26 13 11 405

Jun-18 205 70 38 8 31 3 16 371

Jul-18 205 78 31 11 31 4 18 378

Aug-18 165 57 26 19 11 3 18 299

Sep-18 126 52 25 90 35 10 18 356


49

The majority of disconnections due to NPA in Q3 2018 were for domestic customers. The market

share of suppliers and rate of disconnections will be considered in the 2018 annual report, which

will look at the disconnection rate per 10,000 customers.

Figure 8.2 shows the trend in disconnections for 2015, 2016, 2017, Q1 2018, Q2 2018, and Q3

2018 compared to the trend in installation of PAYG financial hardship meters. Without a PAYG

system in place which provides an option for customers facing difficulty in paying their electricity

bills, disconnections would be significantly higher.

Figure 8.2: Total Domestic Electricity Disconnections compared to PAYG financial

hardship installs for January 2015 to September 2018

% change in electricity disconnections between 2016 and 2018

Total Domestic Non-Domestic

% change between 2016 and 2017 -33% -33% -31%

% change between Q3 2017 and Q3 2018 9% 13% -3%

Table 8.3: % change in electricity disconnections between 2016 and 2018

-

200

400

600

800

1,000

1,200

1,400

1,600

1,800

Jan

-15

Mar

-15

May

-15

Jul-

15

Sep

-15

No

v-1

5

Jan

-16

Mar

-16

May

-16

Jul-

16

Sep

-16

No

v-1

6

Jan

-17

Mar

-17

May

-17

Jul-

17

Sep

-17

No

v-1

7

Jan

-18

Mar

-18

May

-18

Jul-

18

Sep

-18

Total domestic electricity disconnections compared to PAYG installs

PAYG financial hardship installs Domestic Disconnections


50

8.3 Disconnections - Gas Market

There are three types of disconnections13 in gas: credit locks, disconnect meters (DMs) and street

isolations (CTSRs). This section only focuses on the disconnections that were undertaken for non-

payment of account (NPA) reasons14.

Total domestic gas disconnections per supplier

Bord Gáis Energy

SSE Airtricity

Flogas Electric Ireland

Energia PrePay Power

Total

Jul-17 92 9 14 22 14 6 157

Aug-17 93 14 9 6 24 1 147

Sep-17 84 18 36 9 27 1 175

Oct-17 46 7 8 17 18 1 97

Nov-17 74 20 8 37 13 0 152

Dec-17 40 4 4 4 1 0 53

Jan-18 37 7 15 7 10 4 80

Feb-18 66 12 15 20 4 5 122

Mar-18 22 13 6 9 7 0 57

Apr-18 54 8 32 0 9 3 106

May-18 130 23 49 2 11 3 218

Jun-18 93 15 33 8 13 3 165

Jul-18 65 22 29 38 18 4 177

Aug-18 47 25 34 35 20 0 161

Sep-18 61 11 12 55 28 5 173

Table 8.4: Total domestic disconnections by supplier, July 2017 – September 2018

The market share of suppliers and rate of disconnections will be considered in the annual report,

which will look at the disconnection rate per 10,000 customers. Figure 8.3 shows the trend in gas

disconnections compared to the trend in installation of PAYG financial hardship meters. The chart

indicates that without a PAYG system, disconnections would be higher.

13 CRU receives separate data reports on all three from GNI. To determine the disconnections that were completed for non-payment of account reasons (NPA), CRU assumes all credit locks were completed for NPA reasons and sends each supplier the GPRNs that relate to their DMs and CTSRs so that the supplier can identify the remaining NPA disconnections. CRU then add together all the CLs and the NPA identified DMs and CTSRs to derive an estimate for total gas NPA disconnections. 14 This data has been validated by suppliers in advance of publication.


51

Figure 8.3: Total Domestic Gas Disconnections compared to PAYG financial

hardship installs for January 2015 to September 2018

% change in gas disconnections between 2016 and 2018

Total Domestic Non-Domestic

% change between 2016 and 2017 -23% -22% -32%

% change between Q3 2017 and Q3 2018 5.9% 6.7% 16.7%

Table 8.5: Percentage change in gas disconnections between 2016 and 2018

8.4 Summary – Disconnections

▪ The total number of disconnections in Q3 2018 was 1,337 for electricity and 579 for

gas.

▪ Between Q3 2017 and Q3 2018, the total number of electricity disconnections have

increased by 9% and the total number of gas disconnections have increased by 5.9%.

-

100

200

300

400

500

600

700Ja

n-1

5

Mar

-15

May

-15

Jul-

15

Sep

-15

No

v-1

5

Jan

-16

Mar

-16

May

-16

Jul-

16

Sep

-16

No

v-1

6

Jan

-17

Mar

-17

May

-17

Jul-

17

Sep

-17

No

v-1

7

Jan

-18

Mar

-18

May

-18

Jul-

18

Sep

-18

Total domestic gas disconnections compared to PAYG installs

Gas PAYG (financial hardship) installs Domestic Gas Disconnections


52

9. Arrears and Payment Plans

The CRU has begun to collect data on the number of customers in arrears and on payment plans

per quarter, including their value and length. Figures detailing the number of customers in arrears

and on payment plans per market segment will be published on a quarterly basis.

Arrears refers to the number of customers by market segment that were in arrears at the end of

the reporting period regardless of the value of the arrears. As shown in table 9.1, between 11%

and 23% of customers across all segments were in arrears in Q3 2018.

Total number of customers in arrears and on payment plans in Q3 2018


Non-Domestic Electricity

Domestic Gas Non-Domestic

Gas Total

Arrears 231,676 29,679 95,702 6,067 374,120

% of Customers in Arrears 11% 11% 14% 23% 23%

Payment Plans 11,961 - 2,483 - 14,444

% of Customers on Payment Plans 0.58% - 0.37% - 0.53%

Table 9.1: Total number of customers in arrears and on payment plans in Q3 2018

Of those customers in arrears, CRU has conducted analysis on the number of domestic electricity

customers in arrears for greater than 90 days in Q3 2018. In domestic electricity 40% of customers

in arrears have been so for greater than 90 days. In domestic gas 47% of those customers in

arrears have been so for greater than 90 days. This represented 92,020 and 45,153 customers in

electricity and gas respectively.

The option for customers to enter payment plans with their supplier provides an additional

measure of protection to customers who are continuously having difficulty paying their bills.

A payment plan arrangement is a specific payment arrangement with a supplier to cover

outstanding arrears on a customer’s bills. A payment plan can include those arranged to recoup

a debt, regardless of the debt source (i.e. financial hardship, fraud, credit, estimated reads, etc.).

4% Electricity

7% Gas

Customers in arrears

for over 90

days


53

As a percentage of total customers, the number of customers per market segment on payment

plans is much lower than for customers in arrears (figure 9.2).

Figure 9.2: Number of domestic customers on payment plans in relation to the number of domestic customers in arrears

Of all domestic customers in electricity 0.58% (11,961) are on payment plans. In domestic gas,

0.37% (2,483) are on payment plans.

This is a relatively low percentage considering 4% (92,020) of total domestic electricity and 7%

(45,153) of total domestic gas customers are in arrears for over 90 days. Of those in arrears only

5% (domestic electricity) and 3% (domestic gas) are on payment plans.

There is scope for more customers that are in arrears to be on a payment plan. The CRU will keep

this under review.

The CRU has compiled information on the percentage of completed and broken payment plans

for Q3 2018, taken at an aggregate level across suppliers. On average more payment plans are

completed by electricity and gas customers than broken (Electricity: 51% completed; 49% broken.

Gas: 85% completed; 15% broken).

0

50,000

100,000

150,000

200,000

250,000

300,000

Number of customers on payment plans in relation to the number of customers in arrears

On a Payment Plan In Arrears

Electricity Gas


54

9.1 Summary – Arrears and Payment Plans

▪ Between 11% and 23% of customers across all segments were in arrears in Q3 2018.

▪ 4% of total domestic electricity customers are in arrears for longer than 90 days. This

represents 40% of those electricity customers in arrears.

▪ 7% of total domestic gas customers are in arrears for longer than 90 days. This

represents 47% of those gas customers in arrears.

▪ The percentage of total customers per market segment on payment plans is 0.58% for

domestic electricity and 0.37% for domestic gas indicating that 11,961 electricity

customers and 2,483 gas customers are on payment plans.

▪ Generally, more payment plans are completed by electricity and gas customers than

broken.

BUSINESS MARKET DEVELOPMENTS

55

BUSINESS

MARKET

DEVELOPMENTS

▪


56

Introduction

This section provides an overview of energy cost components for business customers and

discusses electricity and gas prices and the types of offers available to business customers. A

number of new business market monitoring metrics are presented here which will be updated on

a quarterly basis in the CRU’s market monitoring reports. Metrics on non-domestic market share

and disconnections are also presented here. The section is structured as follows:

Breakdown of electricity and gas cost

components

Overview of electricity and gas pass

through costs and charges for 2017/18

Overview of business electricity and gas

plans and prices

Review of green source products for

business customers

Market development

Non-domestic disconnections

10 Business Electricity and Gas Cost Components

Whilst final energy prices are primarily influenced by wholesale energy costs, a proportion of the

final price relates to regulated charges for use of the electricity and gas networks. These charges

are generally passed on to customers, but suppliers may choose to absorb changes to these

costs. Unregulated costs such as the wholesale cost of energy and supply costs faced by suppliers

are discussed in detail in a separate energy supply costs information paper (CRU17921).

Final energy prices are comprised of a number of different costs: wholesale (generation), network

and supply costs. Of these the network cost element is regulated, meaning that the charges are

set by the CRU and suppliers must pay these charges on behalf of their customers. In addition,

https://www.cru.ie/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/CRU17291-RFI-Information-paper.pdf


57

there are separate Public Service Obligation (PSO) levies and taxes. This includes the carbon tax

for gas.

Generation

One of the primary components of final retail prices is the cost of wholesale energy. The variation

in wholesale market prices is outside the control of suppliers and the CRU. As the Irish energy

mix is highly dependent on natural gas, this is a major factor in determining final retail prices as

the price of electricity will often reflect movements in the natural gas price.

Details on the wholesale electricity market in Ireland (the Single Electricity Market) can be found

through the following link: Factsheet on the SEM. Historic costs in the wholesale market are

available on the SEMO website (see their Market Data section15) and reports relating to some of

the hedging options available to suppliers against movements in energy costs are available on

the All-Island Project website (see reports on - contracts for difference (CfDs), directed contracts

and PSO CfDs).

In addition to SEM wholesale cost, suppliers pay SEMO (the SEM market operator) a Market

Operator charge to recover the costs of administering the SEM to all electricity users. On the 1st

October 2018, the new I-SEM market went live. The implementation of this market requires

changes to, and the replacement of, the systems used to currently operate and settle the existing

(SEM) wholesale market. This also entails changes to wholesale charges.

Up until the end of 2015 Ireland imported circa. 95% of all gas requirements from Britain via

subsea interconnectors with the remainder coming from the Kinsale gas fields off the coast of

Cork. Therefore, the wholesale price of gas in Ireland was set by reference to the wholesale price

at the trading hub in Britain (National Balancing Point or NBP) plus the cost of transport to Ireland

via the interconnectors. In December 2015, commercial gas from the Corrib gas fields in Mayo

began production and now provides up to 60% of peak day gas demand in Ireland. Although

Ireland is now primarily supplied by indigenous gas sources, the wholesale price has continued

to be set by reference to the wholesale price at the NBP.

Public Service Obligation (PSO)

The PSO levy is a Government initiative designed to support electricity generation plant to meet

national policy objectives of security of energy supply, the use of indigenous fuels (i.e. peat) and

of the use renewable energy sources in electricity generation.

15 You will need to sign up to access the historic pricing information (note the price is referred to as the system marginal price or SMP for short). Signing up is a simple process but should you have any questions you should contact SEMO’s helpline – for details see http://www.sem-o.com/pages/contactus.aspx.

http://www.cer.ie/docs/000262/cer11075.pdf

http://www.sem-o.com/Pages/default.aspx

https://www.semcommittee.com/

http://www.sem-o.com/pages/contactus.aspx


58

Carbon Tax

The Carbon tax was introduced in 2010 and applies to mineral oils, natural gas and solid fuels

supplied for combustion in Ireland. All gas suppliers must apply this tax to customer’s bills. This

energy tax was introduced as a means to incentivise manufacturers and suppliers to provide low

carbon services and products to the household consumer market.

Networks

The cost associated with the services of Networks, which involves sending electricity from

generation plants through the Transmission and Distribution system to customers’ premises, also

accounts for a very significant portion of the final price of electricity for customers. The same cost

applies for gas for the transport of gas through the Transmission and Distribution system.

The CRU undertakes revenue reviews known as “Price Controls” or “Price Reviews” for EirGrid

and ESB Networks in electricity, and for Gas Networks Ireland in gas. These revenue reviews

consider the costs of developing, maintaining and operating the electricity and gas systems. On

the basis of these five yearly revenue controls, the CRU approves the level of charges that the

network operators may levy for each tariff year, which usually runs from October to October.

Each supplier is charged on a per customer basis for access to the electricity or gas networks.

Each supplier has discretion in terms of how they pass these costs through to their final customers.

Supply

Supply costs refer to a supplier’s operating expenditure in supporting their business (e.g.

administrative costs). Supply costs are not detailed here but are the subject of a separate energy

supply costs information paper (CRU17921). While this paper focuses on domestic supply costs,

further information on the breakdown of supplier costs is provided. Section 4 of this paper gives

an overview of cost components for business electricity and gas.

Taxes

Suppliers are responsible for payment of an electricity tax and for returns/accounts in relation to

it. Of these costs, suppliers must charge their customers the PSO levy and all applicable taxes.

They may, however, choose to either absorb or charge the remaining costs to their customers.

A request for information was issued to suppliers in August 2017 requesting a breakdown of their

domestic and non-domestic supply costs. Based on this, the CRU has calculated the percentage

components of business electricity and gas costs to give an indication to business customers of

the components of their final bill. As there are large variations in consumption between different

types of businesses this will lead to different final bill breakdowns, however the graphs below

provide an overview of the components of costs for non-domestic customers faced by suppliers.

https://www.cru.ie/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/CRU17291-RFI-Information-paper.pdf


59

10.1 Electricity

A breakdown of business electricity costs is presented below. As the PSO levy is applied

separately to small commercial customers (MIC < 30 kVA) and medium/large commercial

customers (MIC ≥ 30 kVA), two separate charts to account for this have been developed.

Figure 10.1: Business Electricity Total Costs (with PSO levy for small commercial

customers)

Figure 10.2: Business Electricity Total Costs (with PSO levy for medium/large commercial

customers)

The majority of costs for business electricity customers are comprised of fuel costs and network

costs.


60

10.2 Gas

A breakdown of business gas costs is presented below, based on a weighted average cost

component per customer for each gas supplier. The carbon tax has been calculated based on

consumption for an ‘SME1’ customer as defined by GNI, with 27,223kWh of annual gas

consumption.

Figure 10.3: Business Gas Costs


61

11. Business Electricity and Gas Plans and Prices

This section provides information on small business electricity and Industrial and Commercial (IC)

gas plans and prices, based on information collected on a quarterly basis from suppliers by the

CRU. Information is received on the range of tariff plans that small electricity business (DG5

customers) and IC gas customers (with a supply point capacity below 3,750kWh and annual

quantities of below or greater than 73,000kWh of gas annually) are on for each supplier.

The number and range of plans offered by suppliers in these business segments varies widely,

and unlike domestic plans, there is no requirement in the CRU’s supplier handbook for suppliers

to publish details of these plans. A revised Supplier Handbook was published in April 2017, which

requires suppliers to publish a high level statement on their website regarding the methodology

used to determine energy tariffs for non-household customers. This statement should document

the considerations when setting energy tariffs for different categories of non-household

customers.

Suppliers offer a range of plans for small electricity business and IC gas customers, which can

include fixed energy prices for multi-year contracts, fixed term discount products off standard or

unit rates, business pay as you go contracts, variable rates and the option to fix all or a portion of

electricity prices for a certain usage period. A variety of contract terms and payment options are

available, while some suppliers require deposits and have penalty clauses associated with fixed

term contracts.

It should be noted that this section only covers the top ten commercial plans provided by suppliers.

The business market segment generally has a higher proportion of customers supplied under

bespoke plans than the domestic market segment. Generally, these bespoke plans are not

included in the top ten plans provided by suppliers to the CRU. Therefore the average annual

customer bill under the top ten commercial plan bracket may be higher than that for those

customers who have signed up to a bespoke plan with a lower overall unit rate. The following

information in this section should be viewed under this caveat.

11.1 Small Business Electricity Prices

Currently, seven suppliers offer non-domestic electricity, namely Electric Ireland, Bord Gáis

Energy, Energia, SSE Airtricity, Flogas, Naturgy16 and GoPower. The CRU receives information

on the standard business plans for suppliers with above 5% market share and where applicable

their top 10 small business electricity plans, which includes information on the average annual bill

16 Vayu rebranded to Naturgy in August 2018.


62

for business customers on different plans, unit and standing charges, details of each plan and the

total consumption and number of customers for each plan.

Average annual bills for different non-domestic electricity consumption levels are shown below,

based on a weighted average across multiple supplier’s plans.

Figure 11.1: Weighted average annual bills for different non-domestic electricity

consumption levels

These plans contain a range of standing charges and unit charges, based on the tariff and meter

type and any discounts applied. The range of these charges as reported for Q3 2018 is shown

below.

Unit Charge

Lowest unit charge Highest unit charge Average unit charge

0.057c/kWh 0.223c/kWh 0.16c/kWh

There is a large range in these charges which is dependent on the consumption type and level

across different business customers.

Standing Charge

Lowest standing charge Highest standing charge Average standing charge

€0.41 per day €5.99 per day €1.05 per day

2325.422784.43

3320.74

6769.62

0.00

1000.00

2000.00

3000.00

4000.00

5000.00

6000.00

7000.00

8000.00

<10,000kWh 10,000-15,000kWh 15,000-20,000kWh 20,000-30,000KWh

€

Weighted average annual bills for different non-domestic electricity consumption levels


63

11.2 IC Gas Prices

Currently, seven suppliers offer non-domestic gas, namely Electric Ireland, Bord Gáis Energy,

Energia, SSE Airtricity, Naturgy, Flogas and PrePayPower. The CRU receives information on the

standard business plans for suppliers with above 5% market share and where applicable their top

10 IC gas plans, which includes information on the average annual bill for business customers on

different plans, unit and standing charges, details of each plan and the total consumption and

number of customers for each plan.

Average annual bills for different IC gas consumption levels are shown below, based on a

weighted average across multiple supplier’s plans.

Figure 11.2: Weighted average annual bills for IC gas business consumption bands

These plans contain a range of standing charges and unit charges, based on the tariff and any

discounts applied. The range of these charges as reported for Q3 2018 is shown below.

Unit Charge

Lowest unit charge Highest unit charge Average unit charge

0.015c/kWh 0.063c/kWh 0.045c/kWh

Standing Charge

1107.981268.18

2225.22

4430.68

0.00

500.00

1000.00

1500.00

2000.00

2500.00

3000.00

3500.00

4000.00

4500.00

10,000-20,000kWh 20,000-30,000kWh 30,000-40,000kWh >40,000kWh

€

Average annual bills for different IC gas business consumption bands

Lowest standing charge Highest standing charge Average standing charge

€0.223 per day €8.464 per day €0.899 per day


64

11.3 Eurostat Non-Domestic Electricity and Gas Prices

Eurostat publishes data on a bi-annual basis on average end user prices for different domestic

and industrial/commercial electricity and gas markets. Information is published on the prices for

each consumption band in electricity and gas and on average prices across all consumption bands

compared to the EU and Euro Area average.

Figure 4.7: Average Electricity Prices (ex-VAT) to Business – All Consumption Bands

The price of electricity to business consumers in Ireland has been above both the EU and Euro

Area since the second half of 2011. In the first half of 2018 it was 16% and 13% above the EU

and Euro Area respectively. The graph below shows business electricity prices for different

consumption bands over time.


65

Figure 4.8: Non-domestic electricity prices over time, S1 2008 – S1 2018

The price of gas to business consumers in Ireland was below both the EU and Euro Area between

Semester 2 of 2009 and Semester 2 of 2013. Since 2013 this has fluctuated between the EU and

Euro area average.

Figure 4.9: Average Gas Prices (ex-Vat) to Business – All Consumption Bands

In the first half of 2018 the weighted average price of gas to business customers in Ireland was

4% above the EU and 0.4% below the Euro Area average. The graph below shows business gas

prices for different consumption bands over time.

0.0000

0.0500

0.1000

0.1500

0.2000

0.2500

€/k

Wh

Non-domestic electricity prices over time

Band IA : Consumption < 20 MWh Band IB : 20 MWh < Consumption < 500 MWh

Band IC : 500 MWh < Consumption < 2 000 MWh Band ID : 2 000 MWh < Consumption < 20 000 MWh

Band IE : 20 000 MWh < Consumption < 70 000 MWh


66

Figure 4.10: Non-domestic gas price over time, S1 2008 – S1 2018

11.4 Summary

▪ In semester 1 of 2018, business electricity prices increased in bands IA, IB, IC, IE, and

IF and decreased in band ID compared to semester 1 of 2017. Average price increased

in the dominant consumption band (IB) by 4.13%, being 8.61% higher than the Euro Area

average.

▪ Business gas prices decreased in consumption bands I1 and I2 and decreased in bands

I3 and I4 from semester 1 of 2017 to semester 1 of 2018. Average price decreased in

the dominant consumption band (I4) by 9.36%, being 4.3% higher than the Euro Area

average.

0.0000

0.0100

0.0200

0.0300

0.0400

0.0500

0.0600

0.0700

€/k

Wh

Non-domestic gas price over time

Band I1 : Consumption < 1 000 GJ Band I2 : 1 000 GJ < Consumption < 10 000 GJ

Band I3 : 10 000 GJ < Consumption < 100 000 GJ Band I4 : 100 000 GJ < Consumption < 1 000 000 GJ


67

12. Business Electricity Market Share

12.1 Small Business Electricity Market Share by

Customer Numbers and MWhs


and consumption in MWhs for small business electricity customers. The percentage change in

market share from the last quarter and over the last year is also presented.

Figure 12.1: Q3 2018 Small Business Market Share (%)

Q3 2018 Small Business Market Share

Sites MWhs

Electric Ireland 70,649 287,837


Bord Gáis Energy 26,094 102,716

Energia 37,581 231,107

Others 22,190 101,605

Total 184,456 833,438


Small Business Market Share


38.30

15.15

14.15

20.37

12.03

34.54

13.2212.32

27.73

12.19

Electric Ireland

SSE Airtricity

Bord Gáis Energy

Energia

Others


68


▪ At the end of Q3 2018, Electric Ireland had 34.54% of the small business electricity

market in terms of consumption, followed by Energia with 27.73%, SSE Airtricity with

13.22% and Bord Gáis Energy with 13.32%.

▪ SSE Airtricity lost 3.38% of its market share in terms of consumption between Q3 2017

– Q3 2018, while Electric Ireland increased its market share by 0.47%.

Small Business - change in market share

Q2 2018 – Q3 2018 Q3 2017 – Q3 2018


Electric Ireland -0.29% 0.16% -1.87% 0.47%

SSE Airtricity -0.41% -1.25% -2.48% -3.38%

Bord Gáis Energy 0.51% 0.55% 0.55% -0.42%

Energia -0.52% -0.29% -0.64% -0.53%

Others 0.72% 0.83% 4.43% 3.86%


69

12.2 Medium Business Electricity Market Share by



and consumption in MWhs for medium business electricity customers. The percentage change in


The medium business electricity segment is comprised of DG3 and DG4 (public lighting and

unmetered connections), DG4 and DG6 (Low voltage maximum demand). Prior to the beginning

of 2017, customer numbers for this segment for DG3 and DG4 were based on the number of

grouped MPRNs and single point unmetered connections. Grouped MPRNS can include any

number of physical connections or technical MPRNs.

From 2017, the reports for DG3 and DG4 include the number of physical connections to the

distribution system rather than at a grouped level, so the total number of customer numbers will

appear larger and reported market share of customer numbers in this segment has changed.

However, reporting of market share on a consumption basis has not changed.

Figure 12.2: Q3 2018 Medium Business Electricity Market Share (%)

Medium Business Market Share


18.46

4.411.01

73.78

0.24

0.131.96

41.75

9.536.41

31.29

2.40

0.45

8.18

Electric Ireland

SSE Airtricity

Bord Gáis Energy

Energia

Vayu

Panda Power

Others


70

Q3 2018 Medium Business Market Share

Sites MWhs

Electric Ireland 17,261 412,365


Bord Gáis Energy 947 63,287

Energia 68,978 308,977

Naturgy 229 23,674

Others 1,953 85,206

Total 92,975 987,614


Medium Business - change in market share

Q2 2018 – Q3 2018 Q3 2017-Q3 2018


Electric Ireland -0.05% 0.77% -0.26% 1.80%

SSE Airtricity 2.61% -0.05% 2.45% -0.56%

Bord Gáis Energy 0.04% -0.02% -0.12% -1.43%

Energia -2.66% -0.80% -2.46% -0.98%

Naturgy 0.01% 0.06% -0.01% -0.14%

Others 0.03% 0.03% 0.40% 1.31%


▪ End of Q3 2018, Electric Ireland held 41.75% of the medium business market in terms

of consumption, followed by Energia with 31.29%, SSE Airtricity with 9.53%, Bord Gáis

Energy with 6.41% and Naturgy with 2.40%.

▪ Between Q3 2017 – Q3 2018 Electric Ireland increased its market share by 1.80%,

while Bord Gáis Energy’s market share decreased by 1.43%.


71

12.3 Large Energy Users Electricity Market Share by



and consumption in MWhs for large energy users. The percentage change in market share from

the last quarter and over the last year is also presented.

Figure 12.3: Q3 2018 LEU Electricity Market Share (%)

Q3 2018 LEU Market Share

Sites MWhs

Electric Ireland 660 828,802

SSE Airtricity 336 845,829

Bord Gáis Energy 182 183,232

Energia 418 432,925

Naturgy 143 91,342

Others 156 376,504

Total 1,895 2,758,634


LEU Market Share


34.83

17.739.60

22.06

7.55

8.23

30.04

30.66

6.64

15.69

3.3113.65

Electric Ireland

SSE Airtricity

Bord Gáis Energy

Energia

Vayu

Others


72

LEUs - Change in market share

Q2 2018 – Q3 2018 Q3 2017-Q3 2018



SSE Airtricity 0.52% -1.59% 0.38% 0.55%

Bord Gáis Energy 0.44% 0.71% 0.14% -1.00%

Energia -0.09% 0.20% 0.84% 2.05%

Naturgy -0.23% -0.09% 0.15% -0.10%

Others -0.13% 1.65% 1.27% 3.11%

Table 12.6: % change in market share for Q3 2017 to Q3 2018

▪ At the end of Q3 2018, SSE Airtricity held 30.66% of the market in terms of

consumption, followed by Electric Ireland with 30.04%, Energia with 15.69%, Bord Gáis

Energy with 6.64% and Naturgy with 3.31%. Electric Ireland’s market share dropped to

a level below another market participant’s share for the first time in Q1 2018 and this

continued for Q3 2018.

▪ Between Q3 2017 to Q3 2018, Electric Ireland’s market share decreased by 4.61% in

terms of consumption, while Energia’s market share increased by 2.05%.


73

13. Business Gas Market Share

From the Q1 2017 report, the non-domestic gas market share segments presented in the CRU’s

quarterly market monitoring reports changed based on discussions with GNI to better align the

names and classifications of the gas market segments with the GNI Code of Operations. A number

of the current non-domestic gas definitions were defined when under price regulation, so are now

no longer applicable after deregulation of the market.

The only market segment that changed was the previous RTF market segment, which was split

into the Daily Metered (DM) and Large Daily Metered (LDM) market segments. FVT-eligible gas

was renamed medium-sized non-domestic gas for the purpose of reporting. These changes are

set out below:

Current Name of Market Segment Revised Names and definitions

Total Non-domestic gas Total non-domestic gas

Industrial/Commercial gas (Non-Daily Metered - NDM IC customers with a SPC below 3,750kWh)

Industrial/Commercial gas (NDM IC customers with a SPC below 3,750kWh)

Fuel-Variation Tariff eligible gas (NDM FVT customers with a SPC above 3,750 kWh)

Medium-sized non-domestic gas (NDM FVT customers with a SPC above 3,750 kWh)

Regulated Tariff Formula eligible gas (Annual consumption of between 5.5GWhs and 264GWhs)

Daily Metered (DM) Customers

Large Daily Metered (LDM) Customers excluding power generators.


74

13.1 Industrial and Commercial Gas Market Share by

Customer Numbers and GWhs


and consumption in MWhs for IC gas customers. The percentage change in market share from


IC Market Share

(a) Customer Nos (b) GWhs

Figure 13.1: Q3 2018 IC gas market share (%)

Q3 2018

IC Market Share

Sites GWhs GWhs

(Cumulative)

Bord Gáis Energy 10,408 85 572

SSE Airtricity 1,944 13 66

Electric Ireland 3,303 44 210

Flogas 5,202 68 358

Energia 3,376 39 248

Naturgy 403

9 58

Others 35 0 0

Total 24,671 258 1,512


7.88

42.19

13.39

21.09

13.68

1.63 0.14

5.22

32.95

16.90

26.42

14.94

3.51 0.06

SSE Airtricity

Bord Gáis Energy

Electric Ireland

Flogas

Energia

Vayu

Others


75

IC - change in market share

Q2 2018 – Q3 2018 Q3 2017 – Q3 2018

Sites GWhs Sites GWhs

Bord Gáis Energy 0.47% -2.14% -2.70% -4.42%

SSE Airtricity 0.15% -0.20% 3.11% 1.54%

Electric Ireland 0.47% 2.49% 2.91% 8.05%

Flogas -0.81% 0.94% -0.84% -0.59%

Energia -0.35% -0.94% -2.39% -3.93%

Naturgy -0.03% -0.20% -0.23% -0.59%

Table 13.1: % change in market share for Q3 2017 to Q3 2018

▪ End of Q3 2018, Bord Gáis Energy had the largest market share in the IC gas market,

with 42.19% in terms of customer numbers. This was followed by Flogas with 21.09%,

Energia with 13.68%, Electric Ireland with 13.39%, SSE Airtricity with 7.88% and

Naturgy with 1.63%.

▪ Between Q3 2017 to Q3 2018, SSE Airtricity increased its market share by 3.11%, while

Bord Gáis Energy’s market share decreased by 2.70%.


76

13.2 Medium Sized Non-Domestic Market Share by

Customer Numbers and GWhs


and consumption in MWhs for medium sized non-domestic customers. The percentage change in


Medium Sized Non-Domestic Market Share


Figure 13.2: Q3 2018 Medium Sized Non-Domestic Market Share (%)

Q3 2018

Medium Sized Non-Domestic Market Share

Sites GWhs GWhs

(Cumulative)

Bord Gáis Energy 550 99 607

SSE Airtricity 236 25 92

Flogas 329 86 413

Energia 284 56 280

Naturgy 255 43 245

Electric Ireland 250 51 222

Total 1,905 360 1,860


12.39

28.87

13.12

17.27

14.91

13.39 7.00

27.53

14.0623.92

15.49

12.01

SSE Airtricity

Bord Gáis Energy

Electric Ireland

Flogas

Energia

Vayu


77

Medium Sized Non-Domestic Market Share - change in

market share

Q2 2018 – Q3 2018 Q3 2017 – Q3 2018


Bord Gáis Energy 0.56% -1.38%

-8.73% -8.37%

SSE Airtricity -0.10% 0.06% 9.26% 4.30%

Flogas -0.69% 0.38% -2.28% -2.54%

Energia -0.91% 0.25% -2.19% -1.21%

Naturgy -0.23% -1.13% -0.75% -0.78%

Electric Ireland 1.33%

1.83% 4.63% 8.72%


▪ End of Q3 2018, Bord Gáis Energy had the largest market share in the medium sized

non-domestic market, with 28.87% in terms of customer numbers. This was followed

by Flogas with 17.27%, Energia with 14.91%, Naturgy with 13.39%, Electric Ireland with

13.12% and SSE Airtricity with 12.39%.

▪ Between Q3 2017 – Q3 2018, SSE Airtricity increased its market share by 9.26% in

terms of customer numbers, while Bord Gáis Energy had a decrease in its market share

by 8.73%.


78

13.3 DM Market Share by Customer Numbers and GWhs


and consumption in MWhs for DM gas customers. The percentage change in market share from


DM Market Share


Figure 13.3: Q3 2018 DM gas market share (%)

Q3 2018

DM Market Share

Sites GWhs GWhs

(Cumulative)

Bord Gáis Energy 57 133 530



Gazprom 1 3 13

Energia 55 183 602

Naturgy 40 117 412

Flogas 3 3 17

Total 234 617 2,234


11.97

24.36

21.37

23.50

0.43 17.09

1.28

10.65

21.48

18.41

29.56

0.49 18.91

0.49

SSE Airtricity

Bord Gáis Energy

Electric Ireland

Energia

Gazprom

Vayu

Flogas


79

DM Market Share - change in market

share

Q2 2018 – Q3 2018 Q3 2017 – Q3 2018


Bord Gáis Energy -0.43% -0.31%

-4.15% -5.85%

SSE Airtricity -0.43% -1.21% 3.19% -0.76%

Electric Ireland 0.43% -0.34% -1.00% 3.62%

Gazprom 0.00% -0.01% -0.45% 0.01%

Energia 0.43% 2.41% 3.77% 3.84%

Naturgy 0.00%

-0.29% -1.33% -0.86%

Flogas 0.00% -0.25% -0.03% 0.01%


▪ End of Q3 2018, Bord Gáis Energy had the largest market share in the DM market, with

24.36% in terms of customer numbers. This was followed by Energia with 23.50%,

Electric Ireland with 21.37%, Naturgy with 17.09%, SSE Airtricity with 11.97%, Flogas

with 1.28% and Gazprom with 0.43%.

▪ Between Q3 2017 – Q3 2018, Energia increased its market share by 3.77% in terms of

customer numbers, while Bord Gáis Energy had a decrease in its market share by

4.15%.


80

13.4 LDM Market Share by Customer Numbers and GWhs


and consumption in MWhs for LDM gas customers. The percentage change in market share from


LDM Market Share


Figure 13.4: Q3 2018 LDM gas market share

Q3 2018

LDM eligible Market Share

Sites GWhs GWhs

(Cumulative)

Bord Gáis Energy 20 961 2,911



Energia 2 46 126

Naturgy 5 133 398

Total 38 1,466 4,495


15.79

52.63

13.16

5.26

13.16 10.26

65.58

11.95

3.16 9.05

SSE Airtricity

Bord Gáis Energy

Electric Ireland

Energia

Vayu


81

LDM Market Share - change in market

share

Q2 2018 – Q3 2018 Q3 2017 – Q3 2018


Bord Gáis Energy 2.63% -0.76%

5.26% 7.99%

SSE Airtricity 0.00% 0.04% 5.26% 4.41%


Energia 0.00% 0.58% -2.63% 0.01%

Naturgy 0.00%

0.52% 2.63%

0.37%


▪ End of Q3 2018, Bord Gáis Energy had the largest market share in the LDM market,

with 52.63% in terms of customer numbers, followed by SSE Airtricity with 15.79%,

Electric Ireland and Naturgy each with 13.16%, and Energia with 5.26%.

▪ Between Q3 2017 – Q3 2018, Bord Gáis Energy and SSE Airtricity increased their

market share each by 5.26% in terms of customer numbers, while Electric Ireland had

a decrease in its market share by 10.53%.


82

14. Market Concentration

14.1 Electricity Market Segments

The HHI (Herfindahl-Hirschman Index) is a widely used metric to measure market concentration17.

With low market concentration, the ability of any market player to exploit market power to the

detriment of consumers is reduced and consumers can benefit from competition, innovation and

customer services.

HHI Index Q1

2016 Q2

2016 Q3

2016 Q4

2016 Q1

2017 Q2

2017 Q3

2017 Q4

2017 Q1

2018 Q2

2018 Q3

2018

Small Business 2,803 2,739 2,680 2,584 2,542 2,494 2,450 2,454 2,418 2,378 2,360

Medium Business 2,899 2,826 2,840 2,833 2,832 2,869 2,861 2,963 2,911 2,915 2,927

Large Business 2,896 2,835 2,783 2,632 2,647 2,559 2,475 2,484 2,426 2,427 2,330

Table 14.1: HHI scores from Q1 2016 – Q3 2018

Overall, there has been a steady decrease in the HHI in the small business and large business

segments over time, while there has been an increase in HHI in the medium business segment

from Q1 2016 to Q3 2018. Table 14.1 is illustrated in Figure 14.1 below.

Figure 14.1: HHI trends over time (Q1 2016 – Q3 2018)

17 It is calculated as the sum of the squares of the market shares of all firms in the market, or the 50 largest firms if applicable. It ranges between 0, for an infinite number of small firms, and 10,000, for one firm with a 100% market share. The European Commission considers a HHI above 2000 to signify a highly concentrated market. The U.S. Department of Justice considers a market with a HHI of less than 1,500 to be a competitive marketplace, a HHI of 1,500 to 2,500 to be a moderately concentrated marketplace, and an HHI of 2,500 or greater to be a highly concentrated marketplace.

2000

2200

2400

2600

2800

3000

3200

Q1 2016 Q2 2016 Q3 2016 Q4 2016 Q1 2017 Q2 2017 Q3 2017 Q4 2017 Q1 2018 Q2 2018 Q3 2018

HHI Trend Q1 2016 - Q3 2018

Small Business Medium Business Large Business


83

It is worth noting, however, that a high or low HHI is only an indication of market concentration

and needs to be viewed in combination with other measures of market conduct and performance.

It is for this reason that a GINI coefficient has been calculated for each market segment and will

be compared with the HHI scores.

The GINI coefficient is a commonly-used measure of inequality that condenses the entire

distribution for a market into a single number between 0 and 1: the higher the number, the greater

the degree of inequality18 in that market. The GINI coefficient is a numerical representation of a

Lorenz Curve, which maps the ratio of the number of participants in a market and the

corresponding market share of each participant.

The following graphs below represent the relationship between the percentages of participants in

the various business markets corresponding with their respective market share. Analysing the

blue line in the graphs below, for example, in the Medium Business DM market, 60% of the market

participants represent approximately 20% of the market in Q1 2016. In Q2 2018 this figure

decreases to 16%. The red line represents true ‘equality’. The GINI coefficient is a numerical

representation of the Lorenz Curve by calculating the surface area between the blue line and the

red line19.

Lorenz Curves for Small Business Market

18 Typically, a GINI coefficient of 0.35 would represent moderate inequality in a market, whilst a GINI Coefficient of 0.60 or higher would signal strong inequality. 19 If the area to the right of the red line and the left of the blue line is called ‘A’. The area to the right of the blue line is ‘B’. Then the GINI coefficient = (A/A+B).

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

% o

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% of suppliers in market

GINI 0.60. Small Business Lorenz Curve Q1 2016

0%

20%

40%

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GINI 0.56. Small Business Lorenz Curve Q3 2018


84

Lorenz Curves for Medium Business Market

Lorenz Curves for Large Business Market

Table 14.2 reports the GINI coefficient scores from Q1 2016 – Q3 2018. The GINI coefficient, like

the HHI, has gradually fallen for the small business segment from 0.64 in Q1 2016 to 0.56 in Q3

2018 and for the large business segment from 0.52 in Q1 2016 to 0.44 in Q3 2018, whilst it has

remained relatively stable over time for the medium business segment. Figure 14.2 below

illustrates this trend.

GINI Coefficient Q1

2016 Q2

2016 Q3

2016 Q4

2016 Q1

2017 Q2

2017 Q3

2017 Q4

2017 Q1

2018 Q2

2018 Q3

2018

Small Business 0.64 0.63 0.62 0.61 0.61 0.60 0.59 0.58 0.58 0.57 0.56

Medium Business 0.55 0.53 0.53 0.52 0.52 0.52 0.53 0.53 0.52 0.53 0.53

Large Business 0.52 0.51 0.50 0.48 0.47 0.45 0.44 0.43 0.46 0.46 0.44

Moderate Inequality 0.45 0.45 0.45 0.45 0.45 0.45 0.45 0.45 0.45 0.45 0.45

Strong Inequality 0.6 0.6 0.6 0.6 0.6 0.6 0.6 0.6 0.6 0.6 0.6

Table 14.2: GINI Coefficient from Q1 2016 – Q3 2018

0%

20%

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60%

80%

100%

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% o

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GINI 0.55. Medium Business Lorenz Curve Q1 2016

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

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% o

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GINI 0.53. Medium Business Lorenz Curve Q3 2018

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

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% o

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GINI 0.52. LEU Lorenz Curve Q1 2016

0%

20%

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GINI 0.44. LEU Lorenz Curve Q3 2018


85

Figure 14.2: GINI trends over time (Q1 2016 – Q3 2018)

0.35

0.40

0.45

0.50

0.55

0.60

0.65

0.70

Q1 2016 Q2 2016 Q3 2016 Q4 2016 Q1 2017 Q2 2017 Q3 2017 Q4 2017 Q1 2018 Q2 2018 Q3 2018

GINI Trend Q1 2016 - Q3 2018

Small Business GINI Coefficient Medium Business GINI Coefficient

Large Business GINI Coefficient Moderate Inequality

Strong Inequality

▪ In the electricity market, the HHI (measure of market concentration) has seen a steady

decrease in the small business and large business segments over time, while there has

been an increase in the medium business segment.

▪ The GINI coefficient has remained relatively stable over time for the medium business

segment, whilst it has gradually fallen for the small business and large business

segments.


86

14.2 Gas Market Segments

HHI Index

Q1 2016

Q2 2016

Q3 2016

Q4 2016

Q1 2017

Q2 2017

Q3 2017

Q4 2017

Q1 2018

Q2 2018

Q3 2018

I&C 2,699 2,675 2,636 2,675 2,700 2,710 2,596 2,615 2,612 2,384 2,335

FVT 2,536 2,534 2,479 2,531 2,515 2,537 2,473 2,290 2,301 1,992 1,961

DM 3,254 3,237 3,125 3,149 2,225 2,234 2,149 2,111 2,131 2,074 2,146

LDM - - - - 4,484 4,404 4,047 4,290 4,274 4,739 4,640

Table 14.3: HHI scores from Q1 2016 – Q3 2018

Overall, the HHI has decreased over the last 11 quarters, from Q1 2016 to Q3 2018. There has

been a decrease in the HHI for the DM market segment from 3,254 in Q1 2016 to 2,146 in Q3

2018, with a big drop between Q4 2016 and Q1 2017. This is due to the revised market segments,

i.e. the split of the RTF market segment into the Daily Metered (DM) and Large Daily Metered

(LDM) market segments. The HHI has also fallen for the I&C market segment from 2,699 in Q1

2016 to 2,335 in Q3 2018 and for the FVT market segment from 2,536 in Q1 2016 to 1,961 in Q3

2018. The LDM market has also experienced a decrease in the HHI from 4,484 in Q1 2017 to

4,047 in Q3 2017, with the number rising to 4,739 in Q2 2018 and falling again in Q3 2018 to

4,640. Compared to Q2 2018, the HHI has fallen in Q3 2018 in the I&C, FVT and LDM market

segments and has risen in the DM market segment. This table is illustrated in Figure 14.1 below.

Figure 14.3: HHI trends over time (Q1 2016 – Q3 2018)

As previously mentioned, a high or low HHI is only an indication of market concentration and

needs to be viewed in combination with other measures of market conduct and performance. It is

1900

2400

2900

3400

3900

4400

4900

Q1 2016 Q2 2016 Q3 2016 Q4 2016 Q1 2017 Q2 2017 Q3 2017 Q4 2017 Q1 2018 Q2 2018 Q3 2018

HHI Trend: Q1 2016 - Q3 2018

I&C FVT Medium Business DM LDM


87

for this reason that a GINI coefficient has been calculated for each market segment and will be

compared with the HHI scores.

The following graphs represent the relationship between the percentages of participants in the

various business markets corresponding with their respective market share. Analysing the blue

line in the graphs below, for example, in the Medium Business DM market, 60% of the market

participants represent approximately 13% of the market in Q1 2016. In Q3 2018, this figure

increases to approximately 20%. The red line represents true ‘equality’. The GINI coefficient is a

numerical representation of the Lorenz Curve by calculating the surface area between the blue

line and the red line20.

Lorenz Curves for I&C Market

Lorenz Curves for FVT Market

20 If the area to the right of the red line and the left of the blue line is called ‘A’. The area to the right of the blue line is ‘B’. Then the GINI coefficient = (A/A+B).

0%

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GINI 0.42 I&C Lorenz Curve Q1 2016

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GINI 0.36 I&C Lorenz Curve Q3 2018

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GINI 0.40 FVT Lorenz Curve Q1 2016

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20%

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GINI 0.23 FVT Lorenz Curve Q3 2018


88

Lorenz Curve for DM Market

Lorenz Curve for LDM Market

Table 14.4 reports the GINI coefficient scores from Q1 2016 – Q3 2018. The GINI coefficient has

fallen in all business market segments over time. Compared to Q2 2018, in Q3 2018 the GINI

coefficient has remained constant in the I&C market segment, whilst it has fallen in the FVT and

LDM market segments and has risen in the DM market segment. Figure 14.4 below illustrates this

trend.

GINI Coefficient Q1

2016 Q2

2016 Q3

2016 Q4

2016 Q1

2017 Q2

2017 Q3

2017 Q4

2017 Q1

2018 Q2

2018 Q3

2018

I&C 0.42 0.42 0.41 0.42 0.42 0.43 0.41 0.41 0.41 0.36 0.36

FVT 0.40 0.40 0.39 0.40 0.39 0.43 0.40 0.33 0.33 0.24 0.23

DM 0.59 0.58 0.58 0.57 0.49 0.49 0.47 0.46 0.47 0.45 0.47

LDM - - - - 0.52 0.52 0.51 0.52 0.49 0.53 0.51

Moderate Inequality 0.45 0.45 0.45 0.45 0.45 0.45 0.45 0.45 0.45 0.45 0.45

Strong Inequality 0.6 0.6 0.6 0.6 0.6 0.6 0.6 0.6 0.6 0.6 0.6

Table 14.4: GINI Coefficient Scores Q1 2016 – Q3 2018

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GINI 0.57 DM Lorenz Curve Q1 2016

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GINI 0.47 DM Lorenz Curve Q3 2018

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GINI 0.52 LDM Lorenz Curve Q1 2017

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GINI 0.51 LDM Lorenz Curve Q3 2018


89

Figure 14.4: GINI trends over time (Q1 2016 – Q3 2018)

0.20

0.25

0.30

0.35

0.40

0.45

0.50

0.55

0.60

0.65

Q1 2016 Q2 2016 Q3 2016 Q4 2016 Q1 2017 Q2 2017 Q3 2017 Q4 2017 Q1 2018 Q2 2018 Q3 2018

GINI Trend Q1 2016 - Q3 2018

I&C GINI Coefficient FVT GINI Coefficient

Medium Business DM GINI Coefficient Moderate Inequality

Strong Inequality LDM GINI Coefficient

▪ In the gas market, the HHI has decreased over time in the I&C, FVT and DM market

segments, whilst it has increased in the LDM market segment.

▪ Between Q2 2018 and Q3 2018 the GINI coefficient has remained constant in the I&C

market segment, whilst it has fallen in the FVT and LDM market segments and has

risen in the DM market segment. However, over time it has fallen in all market

segments.


90

15. Non-Domestic Disconnections

Table 15.1: Total Non-Domestic Electricity Disconnections per Supplier, January 2016 –

September 2018

The total number of non-disconnections in Q1 2018 was 283 for electricity and 41 for gas. These

represent a 2% decrease in electricity non-domestic disconnections and a 5% decrease in gas

compared to the number of non-domestic disconnections in Q4 2017. Tables 15.1 and 15.2 below

show total non-domestic disconnections for January 2016 to March 2018 in electricity and gas

respectively.

Total Non-Domestic Electricity Disconnections per Supplier

Electric Ireland

Energia SSE

Airtricity

Bord Gáis

Energy

PrePay Power

Pinergy

Panda

Flogas Total

Jan-16 85 45 18 16 - - - - 164

Feb-16 81 23 15 31 - - - - 150

Mar-16 122 28 18 25 - - - - 193

Apr-16 110 28 23 26 - - - - 187

May-16 136 43 40 13 3 2 - - 237

Jun-16 68 31 12 14 - - - - 125

Jul-16 70 24 17 17 - - - - 128

Aug-16 79 28 20 14 - - - - 141

Sep-16 82 25 24 18 - - - - 149

Oct-16 38 30 21 8 - - - - 105

Nov-16 49 27 26 20 - - - - 131

Dec-16 41 14 8 8 - - - - 80

Jan-17 22 40 22 16 - - - - 100

Feb-17 42 26 17 18 - - - - 103

Mar-17 39 37 28 18 1 - - - 123

Apr-17 38 13 18 6 0 0 - - 75

May-17 53 33 32 13 0 1 - - 132

Jun-17 34 20 8 8 1 1 1 - 73

Jul-17 40 28 12 19 3 0 1 - 103

Aug-17 46 19 17 21 1 0 - - 104

Sep-17 39 21 13 33 0 0 - - 106

Oct-17 41 8 13 19 - - - 3 84

Nov-17 80 21 21 27 2 3 1 1 156

Dec-17 20 4 3 19 1 1 1 - 49

Jan-18 50 23 22 16 0 1 1 0 133

Feb-18 28 20 20 25 2 3 1 0 99

Mar-18 11 21 10 8 0 1 0 0 51

Apr-18 33 25 22 19 0 0 0 0 99

May-18 52 17 16 5 0 0 0 0 90

Jun-18 51 23 7 17 1 1 2 0 102

Jul-18 71 17 21 16 0 2 4 0 131

Aug-18 34 14 19 8 0 0 6 0 81

Sep-18 32 20 17 16 1 3 3 0 92


91

Total Non-Domestic Gas Disconnections per Supplier

Bord Gáis

Energy

SSE Airtricity

Flogas Electric Ireland

Energia NATURG

Y Total

Jan-16 11 2 0 0 3 1 17

Feb-16 17 2 2 0 1 1 23

Mar-16 78 1 0 2 8 0 89

Apr-16 16 0 2 3 1 1 23

May-16 19 1 1 2 2 0 25

Jun-16 9 2 4 1 6 0 22

Jul-16 10 1 6 0 6 0 23

Aug-16 11 2 0 2 0 0 15

Sep-16 26 5 3 0 5 1 40

Oct-16 6 1 0 0 4 0 11

Nov-16 8 1 3 0 7 0 19

Dec-16 6 0 2 1 4 0 13

Jan-17 4 1 7 2 3 0 17

Feb-17 5 1 1 2 6 0 15

Mar-17 10 4 4 0 8 0 26

Apr-17 2 2 4 1 0 0 9

May-17 19 1 3 3 0 0 26

Jun-17 11 1 2 2 5 0 21

Jul-17 23 1 0 0 3 0 27

Aug-17 11 0 2 0 4 0 17

Sep-17 9 1 3 0 3 0 16

Oct-17 11 0 4 0 4 0 19

Nov-17 11 0 1 0 1 0 13

Dec-17 10 1 0 0 0 0 11

Jan-18 8 0 2 1 3 0 14

Feb-18 6 0 2 1 8 0 17

Mar-18 4 0 2 0 4 0 10

Apr-18 7 0 3 1 4 0 15

May-18 2 0 1 0 6 0 9

Jun-18 12 1 9 0 0 0 23

Jul-18 12 2 9 7 3 0 33

Aug-18 5 0 6 2 5 2 20

Sep-18 4 0 3 7 2 1 17

Table 15.2: Total Non-Domestic Gas Disconnections per Supplier, January 2016 – September 2018

92

16. Conclusion

This report has detailed electricity and gas retail prices, plans and cost components for Q3 2018,

along with domestic and business market shares of suppliers, and market concentration. It has

also presented data for Q3 2018 concerning customer switching, PAYG installs, debt flagging,

disconnections, and arrears and payment plans.

A total of 7 suppliers announced price increases in the first half of 2018, based in increased

wholesale costs and regulated charges. In Q3 2018, three suppliers have announced second

price increases. Supplier’s increases and effective dates for tariff changes are outlined in this

report.

In Q3 2018, Electric Ireland remained the largest electricity supplier in terms of consumption in

the domestic, small business, and medium business market segments. However, for the third

consecutive quarter, Electric Ireland held the second largest share in the LEU market, with SSE

Airtricity being the largest supplier in this segment. In gas, Bord Gáis Energy remained the largest

supplier in terms of customer numbers in all market segments (domestic, IC, medium-sized, DM

and LDM). The market share of both suppliers remained below the threshold at which they were

price deregulated. It is worth noting that incumbent suppliers are now at or below 50% market

share in the domestic markets (Electric Ireland 48% in electricity; BGE 45.5% in gas).

Switching has continued in both the electricity and gas markets with 78,013 electricity customers

and 34,155 gas customers changing their supplier in Q3 2018.

The number of PAYG meters installed for financial hardship decreased compared to Q3 2017.

The amount of disconnections for non-payment of accounts increased in Q3 2018 for both

electricity and gas customers compared to Q3 2017. The CRU continues to support and promote

the early intervention by suppliers to encourage customer engagement and uptake of payment

plans and PAYG meters and to continue to ensure that the disconnection of a customer is treated

as a ‘last resort’. The CRU continues to work with industry to determine what further actions can

be taken to limit the level of disconnections.

The CRU commits to continue to monitor all electricity and gas market segments and should it

feel that customers are not benefiting, the CRU will take action to improve matters.

93

Annex 1 Overview of Electricity pass through costs and charges for 2017/18

1 Electricity Market Segments

The electricity market is comprised of four different market segments covering different DUoS

groups (distribution use of system groups or DGs)21: domestic, small-sized business, medium-

sized business and large energy users (LEUs). It is important to know your DuoS group as some

charges vary depending on which one you are in. The table below provides a breakdown of the 3

different business markets and their respective DUoS groups.

Business Market DUoS Group

Small Business DUoS Group 5 – General Purpose

Medium Business Duos Group 4 – Local Authority Public Lighting

DUoS Group 6 – LVMD & LLF

Large Energy User

DUoS Group 7- Medium Voltage Max Demand

DUoS Group 8- 38KV Max Demand

DUoS Group 9 – 38KV Max Demand

T-CONN (Transmission Connected)

2 Consumption

Some of the components of prices are charged on consumption at the trading point (on the

transmission network) and others on consumption at the selling point (on the distribution network).

Energy networks operate at two levels – transmission and distribution. Transmission networks

comprise the high voltage and high pressure lines. Distribution networks comprise the low voltage

and low pressure lines. All generation charges and Transmission Use of System (TUoS) charges

are based on consumption at the trading point, while Distribution Use of System (DUoS) charges

are based on consumption at the selling point. Retail consumption data published on a quarterly

basis by the CRU refers to consumption at selling point (i.e. at the customer’s site). This will

determine the level of charges to apply at the customer’s site.

21 A DUoS charge is a fee that ESB Networks charges to electricity suppliers for use of the electricity distribution system. The amount of DUoS that ESBN charges a supplier for each customer depends on which DUoS Group a customer is classified as, which is based on several factors including the voltage a premises is connected at, the type of meter installed, or if electricity is exported. Source: ESB Networks.

94

To determine the trading point consumption for different market segments, a distribution loss

adjustment factor (DLAF) is used. Electricity must be transported from the trading point to the

customer’s metering point. During this transportation, losses occur and a DLAF is applied to

customers metered energy consumption to account for the losses. The energy consumption

measured at a customer’s meter is multiplied by the DLAF to get the consumption at which

generation and transmission charges are applied. The CRU publishes DLAFs each year with

different DLAFs depending on the size of a customer’s connection and the time of consumption.

The following are the applicable DLAFs for the 2016/17 tariff year.

DLAFS

Time Period

Composite Day Night

38kV Sales 1.020 1.021 1.017

MV Sales 1.036 1.038 1.031

LV Sales 1.087 1.092 1.074

3 Overview of charges

The following electricity charges are regulated and approved annually. These costs are necessary

in order for networks and other market operators to recoup the cost of generating, transmitting

and distributing electricity, and suppliers are required to pay these annually. Changes to these

charges generally come into effect on the 1st October annually (capacity charges are updated on

1st January).

95

Cost Charge Description

Generation

Capacity Payments Payment made to generators for availability separate from energy

production.

Market Operator

Charges

Charges levied on generators and suppliers for the operation of the

wholesale markets.

Imperfection Charges Constraint costs on the network are recovered by imperfection

charges.

Networks

Network transmission

use of system charges

(TUoS)

Charges levied for the building, maintenance and operation of the

transmission network.

Network Distribution

use of system charges

(DUoS)

Charges levied for the building, maintenance and operation of the

distribution network,

PSO

Public Service

Obligation Levy

Levied for support for renewables, security of supply and indigenous

fuels (peat).

While it is the decision of each supplier whether or not to pass through such costs to final

customers, it is likely that most suppliers pass through all such costs.

96

4 Generation Charges

Capacity Payments

The capacity payment mechanism contributes towards generators’ fixed costs because the

system marginal price (SMP) is set in relation to short-run generation costs only. A capacity

payment mechanism is needed to allow generators to fully recover their long-run fixed costs.

The table below shows the applicable charge for the business electricity market segments.

Year Indicative Cost Per MWh

2017 €14.09

Market Operator (MO) Charges

The Single Electricity Market (SEM) is administered by the Single Electricity Market Operator

(SEMO). SEMO imposes a Market Operator charge to recover the costs of administering the SEM

to all electricity users on a cent per kilowatt hour (c/kWh) basis.

The following are the applicable charges for the business electricity market segments.

MO Charges 2017/18

Fixed Supplier Charge (per unit22) €128

Variable Supplier Charge (per MWh) €0.286

Imperfection Charges

SEMO also recovers costs on an annual basis in relation to imperfection charges. Imperfections

are made up of Make Whole Payments, Energy Imbalance Charges and Dispatch Balancing

Costs (constraint costs). These are all costs relating to the operation of the grid. The following are

the applicable charges for the business electricity market segments.

Imperfection charge 2017/18

Tariff €5.00/MWh

22 Refers to supplier unit. A full list of supply units is on the SEMO website

97

5 Network Charges

Distribution Use of System (DUoS) charges

DUoS tariffs are charged to suppliers on the basis of the amount of energy used by their

customers, and include standing charges. The DSO charges are calculated annually based on

the ‘allowed revenue’ (as determined by the CRU). DUoS tariffs are approved annually by the

CRU and are shown below for DG4 to DG6. DG7 to DG9 are included in the appendix.

Segment DUoS Standing charge 2017/18

DUoS Unit rates 2017/18

Low Power Factor Surcharge

DG3 €0.03340/kWh

DG4 €0.03340/kWh (ex DG4 premium23)

DG 5 and DG5b (low voltage non-

domestic customers, non-

max demand)

Standard meter: €95.369/ customer/ annum Day/night meter: €95.369/

customer/ annum

Standard meter: €0.04401/kWh

Day/night meter: Day: €0.05147/kWh Night: €0.00629/kWh

Standard meter: €0.01021/kVArh Day/night meter: €0.01021/kVArh

DG5a (low voltage autoproducers

MEC>MIC, non-max demand)

Na

Standard meter: €0.04401/kWh

Day/night meter: Day: €0.05147/kWh Night: €0.00629/kWh

Standard meter: €0.01021/kVArh Day/night meter: €0.01021/kVArh

DG 6 and DG 6b (low voltage

business customers, max

demand)

Standing charge: €889.591/customer /annum Capacity

charge: €33.199/kVA of MIC /annum

Day: €0.02619/kWh Night: €0.00309/kWh

€0.00933/kVArh

DG 6a (low voltage autoproducers MEC>MIC, max

demand)

Na Day: €0.02619/kWh Night: €0.00309/kWh

€0.00933/kVArh

Transmission Use of System (TUoS) charges

TUoS charges are applied for the use of the transmission system infrastructure in Ireland. The

following are the applicable charges for the business electricity market segments.

23 DG4 tariff also incurs an additional premium in respect of additional costs incurred on public lighting installations. This premium is 0.01 c/kWh but it is currently being reviewed.

98

TUoS for 2016/17 DTS-D224 (non-

LEUs) DTS-D125 (non-

LEUs) DTS-D126 (LEUs) DTS-T27 (LEUs)

Network Capacity Charge

€6.2143/MWh (day hrs)

€1,591.4405/MW €1,234.9471/MW €1,463.7413/MW

Network Transfer Charge

€2.9541/MWh €2.9541/MWh €2.2925/MWh €2.2924/MWh

System Services Charge

€4.6270MWh €4.6270/MWh €3.5905/MWh €3.5905/MWh

DSM Charge €0.0001/MWh

(day hrs) €0.0001/MWh



(day hrs)

Note: DTS-D2 (non-LEU) is applicable to DG 3, DG 4, DG 5, the majority of DG 6 customers.

DTS-D1 (non-LEUs) is applicable to some DG 6 customers.

DTS-D1 (LEUs) is applicable to DG 7, DG 8 and DG 9 customers.

DTS-T (LEUs) is applicable to T-CONN customers

6 Public Service Obligation Levy (PSO)

The Public Service Obligation Levy (PSO) is charged on all electricity customers and designed to

support the national policy objectives of security of supply, the use of indigenous fuels (i.e. peat)

and the use of renewable energy sources in electricity generation.

The proceeds of the levy are used to contribute to the additional costs incurred by PSO-supported

electricity generation which are not recovered in the electricity market, typically via contracts that

suppliers have in place with electricity generators. The following are the applicable charges for

the non-domestic electricity market segment.

PSO Levy Monthly Levy Amount

2017/18

Small commercial customers (MIC of less than 30kVA)

€26.44 per customer

Medium & large customers (MIC of equal to or greater than 30kVA)

€3.64 per customer

24 DTS-D2 non-LEU customers are those connected to the distribution system and have a maximum import capacity of less than 0.5MWs. 25 DTS-D1 non-LEU customers are those connected to the distribution system and have a maximum import capacity (MIC) greater than 0.5MWs. 26 DTS-D1 customers are those connected to the distribution system and have a maximum import capacity (MIC) greater than 0.5MWs. 27 Applies to customers connected directly to the transmission system.

99

7 Electricity Tax

To comply with the EU Energy Tax Directive, an electricity tax on suppliers of electricity was

introduced in 2008. Suppliers are responsible for payment of the tax and for returns/accounts in

relation to it. This cost is passed on to final customers28.

Electricity Tax

Business €0.50 per MWh

28 Households are exempt

100

Annex 2 Overview of gas pass through charges and costs for 2017/18

This section describes the network related elements for gas business customers. As with the

electricity charges, these charges are approved by the CRU.

1 Gas Market Segments

For the purpose of the CRU’s reporting, the gas market is comprised of three distinct sectors

which is dependent on the Annual Quantity (AQ) consumed at the site. Annual Quantity is an

estimate of the amount of gas that will be consumed at a site within a given year, and is usually

based on historic consumption at a site. In addition, your Supplier is required to book capacity on

the network for peak day usage. This is known as the Supply Point Capacity (SPC).

Business customers are classified by the meter type, which fall into three categories; Non-Daily

Metered (NDM), Daily Metered (DM) and Large Daily Metered (LDM). Each category of business

user is dependent on the gas consumption expected at the site.

• Large Daily Metered; AQ above 77,5000 MWh

• DM: AQ between 5,500 MWh and 57,500 MWh

• NDM: AQ below 5,500 MWh

In general, DM and LDM customers will have a site specific consumption. This would include

factories, dairies and power generation, and therefore deriving an average for this type of site

would not derive a useful average.

2 Consumption

LDM and DM customers’ consumption is atypical in so far as deriving an average would be

difficult, as the range of customer types varies from power generation plants to dairies. However,

GNI (as the network operator) does generate average consumption profiles for the NDM sector,

where all domestic customer and smaller businesses are connected. These are known as SME1,

SME2 and SME3. When GNI derives average profiles it takes historic consumption and long term

weather patterns into account, and also corrects these for any anomalies e.g. if weather was

abnormally warm or cold. This assists GNI in deriving the AQ at each point which is based on the

annual consumption at each point as well as the SPC which is the Peak day demand at the point.

Average yearly consumption per gas point per category as modelled by GNI is shown below.

101

Category Band ( AQ) Number of gas

points Average yearly

consumption per gas point

SME 1 Below 73,000 KWh 15,850 27,223kWh

SME 2 Equal to or above 73,000 KWh and SPC less than

3,750 KWh 8,250 186,670kWh

SME 3 SPC greater than 3,750

KWh 1,800 1,342,383 kWh

3 Network Charges

There are two sets of charges that apply to business gas customers dependent on whether the

customer is connected to the high pressure transmission network or the low pressure distribution

network. All power generation and large businesses are connected to the transmission network

and therefore only pay transmission tariffs. All other customers are connected to the distribution

network, and therefore must also pay distribution tariffs. This is because in the case of distribution

connected customers, all gas flows through the transmission network initially before entering the

distribution network.

In the case of both transmission and distribution the applicable charges are based on two charges:

commodity charges which are based on actual flows of gas (AQs) and capacity charges which

are based on “booking “space within the network as per the SPC described above.

Distribution tariffs

The Distribution Use of System charges are calculated annually based on the ‘allowed revenue’

of Gas Networks Ireland which are set out in the Price Controls that CRU publish on a 5 yearly

basis. Revenues are recovered on an 80:20 split between capacity and commodity charges.

Category by Annual Quantity Capacity Charge (c/pk day kWh)

<=73 MWh 158.3296

> 73 MWh - <=14,653 MWh 140.1600 - 4.0747 * Ln(MDQ)*

> 14,653 MWh - <=57,500 MWh 350.1701 - 50.2496 * Ln(MDQ)

> 57,500 MWh 43.1821

102

The capacity and commodity unit charges are determined by inserting the Maximum Daily

Quantity into the relevant formulae (MDQ measured in MWh). The result of the formulae are in

terms of c/peak day kWh and c/kWh respectively.

Category by Annual Quantity Commodity Charge (c/kWh)

<=73 MWh 0.3424

> 73 MWh - <=14,653 MWh 0.2735 - 0.0266 * Ln(MDQ)

> 14,653 MWh - <=57,500 MWh 0.3187 - 0.0420 * Ln(MDQ)

> 57,500 MWh 0.0623

GNI has a Distribution Tariff Calculator which allows you to input your distribution entry and/or exit

point requirements which will be used to calculate the applicable distribution tariff. The calculator

is available here.

Transmission tariffs

Tariffs for the transmission system are based on an entry-exit regime. This means that customers

pay for putting gas onto the system and for offtaking gas from the system. Similar to the distribution

system, these charges recover the allowed revenues for Gas Networks Ireland.

The transmission system has three entry points; Moffat in Scotland where the Gas Network Ireland

system joins the UK gas system, Inch in Cork and Bellanaboy where Corrib gas enters the

network. For each of these there is an entry capacity tariff applicable. In addition there is a single

commodity charge (per MWh) that applies regardless of the entry point.

In addition, there is a capacity and commodity charge for exiting the network. The same charge

applies regardless of where gas is taken off the network. These charges are set out below.

Moffat entry capacity €359.18

Inch entry capacity €53.02 (storage entry)

€156.65 (production entry)

Bellanaboy entry capacity €658.43

Entry Commodity €0.114

Exit Capacity €402.08

Exit Commodity €0.237

103

To calculate the cost on a per customer basis, similar to the distribution network, the capacity

booked and the commodity i.e. flow must be known. The capacity tariffs above are based on an

annual product which means that for each MWh of capacity booked, the customer can use that

amount each day of the tariff year which runs from October to October. In addition, customers can

purchase a short term product which is capacity booked for a specific period of time. These short

term capacity products are available as Quarterly, Monthly, Daily and Within Day products. The

charges for each of these products is based on a multiplier to the annual product. The decision to

purchase either an annual or a short term product is usually dependent on the typical consumption

profile of a particular customer.

In addition, commodity charges apply on a per MWh basis. These are flow based and vary from

customer to customer.

The transmission calculator allows you to input your transmission entry and/or exit point

requirements which will be used to calculate the applicable transmission tariff.

4 Carbon tax

Since 1 May 2012 the rate of carbon tax has been €0.37 cent per kWh. This is subject to VAT of

13.5%, making a total of €0.00420 per kWh. All natural gas suppliers in Ireland have to levy the

carbon tax on their customers. Some natural gas customers are exempt from paying carbon tax.

These include:

• Natural gas consumers who use it for the purpose of generating electricity.

• Natural gas manufacturer consumers, where it is used for the purpose of chemical

reduction.

• Natural gas manufacturing customers where it is used in electrolytic or metallurgical

processes.

Partial exemptions from paying carbon tax apply to:

• Industrial and manufacturer consumers covered by a greenhouse gas emissions permit

that has been issued by the Environmental Protection Agency.

• Suppliers dealing with the cogeneration of environmentally friendly heat and power, as

decided by the Minister for Finance.

https://www.gasnetworks.ie/corporate/gas-regulation/tariffs/transmission-calculator/

104

Annex 3 Charges in the Business Markets Developments section

The papers referenced below provide more information on the charges detailed in the Business

Market Developments Section;

• CER17273D ‘DLAFs for Oct 17-18

• ACPS 2018 Decision Paper ‘Fixed Cost of a Best New Entrant Peaking Plant, Capacity

Requirement and Annual Capacity Payment Sum For Trading Year 2018’.Sept 2017’.

• ‘SEMO Tariffs and Imperfection Costs, 7th September 2017, available here.

• ‘Imperfections Charge October 2017-September 2018 and Incentive Outturn October

2015-September 2016’, available here.

• CER/17/273 ‘Electricity Distribution Network Allowed Revenue 2018, Distribution Tariffs

2017/2018 & Distribution Loss Adjustment Factors’ and accompanying tariff statement.

• CER/17/276 ‘Electricity Transmission Network Allowed Revenue 2018 and Transmission

Tariffs 2017/18’.

• PSO levy to be applicable for the 2017/18 tariff year, CER/16/251.

• DUoS charges to be applicable for the 2017/18 tariff year, see CER/17/274 and GNI’s

accompanying tariff statement here.

The table below details the applicable DUoS charges for each DG group.

Segment DUoS Standing charge 2017/18

DUoS Unit rates 2017/18 Low Power

Factor Surcharge

DG3

€0.03340/kWh

DG4 €0.03340/kWh (ex DG4

premium29)

DG 5 and DG5b (low voltage non-

domestic customers, non-

max demand)

Standard meter: €95.369/ customer/ annum Day/night meter: €95.369/

customer/ annum

Standard meter: €0.04401/kWh Day/night

meter: Day: €0.05147/kWh Night: €0.00629/kWh

Standard meter: €0.01021/kVArh

Day/night meter:

€0.01021/kVArh

DG5a (low voltage autoproducers

Na Standard meter:

€0.04401/kWh Day/night

Standard meter: €0.01021/kVArh

Day/night

29 DG4 tariff also incurs an additional premium in respect of additional costs incurred on public lighting installations. This premium is 0.01 c/kWh but it is currently being reviewed.

https://www.cru.ie/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/CER17273D-DLAFS-for-Oct-17-Sept-18.pdf

https://www.semcommittee.com/sites/semcommittee.com/files/media-files/SEM-17-078%20ACPS%202018%20Decision%20paper%20-%20Oct%20update_0.pdf

http://www.sem-o.com/Publications/General/2017-2018%20SEMO%20Tariffs%20and%20Imperfections%20Costs.pdf

https://www.semcommittee.com/sites/semcommittee.com/files/media-files/SEM-17-076%20Imperfections%20Charge%202017-18%20and%20Incentive%20Outturn%202015-16%20Decision%20Paper.pdf

https://www.cru.ie/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/CER17273-Electricity-Distribution-Network-Allowed-Revenue-2018-Distribution-Tariffs-20172018-DLAFs.pdf

https://www.cru.ie/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/CER17273C-DUoS-Tariff-Statement-for-Oct-17-Sept-18.pdf

https://www.cru.ie/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/CER17276-CER-Paper-on-2018-Transmission-Revenue-Final-to-publish.pdf

http://www.cer.ie/docs/001074/CER16252%20PSO%20Levy%202016-17%20-%20Revised%20Decision%20Paper.pdf

https://www.gasnetworks.ie/corporate/gas-regulation/tariffs/distribution-tariffs/Distribution-Tariff-for-Gas-Year-2017-18.pdf

105

MEC>MIC, non-max demand)

meter: Day: €0.05147/kWh Night: €0.00629/kWh

meter: €0.01021/kVArh

DG 6 and DG 6b (low voltage

business customers, max

demand)

Standing charge: €889.591/customer /annum Capacity

charge: €33.199/kVA of MIC /annum

Day: €0.02619/kWh Night: €0.00309/kWh

€0.00933/kVArh

DG 6a (low voltage

autoproducers MEC>MIC, max

demand)

Na Day: €0.02619/kWh Night:

€0.00309/kWh €0.00933/kVArh

DG 7 & DG 7b (medium voltage customers, max

demand)

Standing charge: €1,567.998/customer

/annum Capacity charge: €11.466/kVA of

MIC /annum Day

Day: €0.00453/kWh Night: €0.00071/kWh

€0.00819/kVArh

DG 7a (medium voltage


demand)


€0.00071/kWh €0.00819/kVArh

DG 8 & DG 8b (38kV looped

customers, max demand



MIC /annum

Day: €0.00100/kWh Night: €0.00007/kWh

€0.00768 /kVArh

DG 8a (38kV looped


demand)


€0.00007/kWh €0.00768

/kVArh

DG 9 & DG 9b (38kV tailed

customers, max demand)



MIC /annum

Day: €0.00100/kWh Night: €0.00007/kWh

€0.00768/kVArh

DG 9a (38kV tailed autoproducers MEC>MIC, max

demand)


€0.00007/kWh €0.00768/kVArh

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