ESB Prices & more

B

brokebetty

Registered User
Messages
10
How does a company that reports a 432million profit justify a 17+% increase in prices? Bring on competition!
How is anyone supposed to actually afford to even eat in this country anymore?

How much of a pity is it that there's not a general election in the offing until somebody besides the ordinary citizen gets punished for once!
 
I think we just have to get used to it. Oil is rising therefore energy isn't getting any cheaper. Maybe if they get the super grid off the ground it will stem the price rises
 
Last edited:

Simple maths betty - 70% of the ESB's running costs are fuel ( Gas, Oil & coal etc. ) Cost of all these has gone through the roof - so the price of electricity to you and me is going up - Last years profits are irrelevant and insignificant in the scale of things ( incidentally they are injecting € 300 mil of profit to stem the price rise for this year )
 
brokebetty said:
How does a company that reports a 432million profit justify a 17+% increase in prices? Bring on competition!
How is anyone supposed to actually afford to even eat in this country anymore?
Click to expand...


there is competition BB - have you not looked??
 
With significant price rise in the pipeline (pardon the pun) for Gas and ESB, will competition in these markets push prices down ?
Bord Gais is entering the electricity market, Airtricity will expand into domestic electricity area soon, and possibly Gazprom and others arriving in the Gas market.

Is it naive to think competition here will drive down prices, or are prices now so high that its such a lucrative market to new entrants they will not want to cut prices ?
 

1. There is very little profit to be made from Domestic Electricity Customers hence why hundreds of suppliers have not flooded the market
2. The electricity regulator (CER) wold not allow incumbents or new entrants keep prices high & make massive profits off customers
 
batty said:
The electricity regulator (CER) wold not allow incumbents or new entrants keep prices high & make massive profits off customers
Click to expand...

I think you are a little optimistic here Batty - many believe that the CER is in the pocket of the ESB - the ESB always get what they ask for - the ESB were also very successful for years in blocking new entrants in all areas from supply to generation
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Many of their over paid staff should should be given
redundancy at no more than 4 weeks a year total, If this was a big major company like Microsoft,Dell,Intel, they would be cutting their wage bill not putting up the price of their goods, remember pc's are always coming down in cost not going up.
 
redstar said:
Don't say it too loudly or there'll be a strike !
Click to expand...
I have a few friends who worked in that decomissioned ESB station in Offaly for 2 years after it was shut down. That's the way the ESB does business, paying people to work for a few years in a non operational station. So you can feel good about where your money is going!

On another note - what is happening with all our gas up in Mayo? Is it coming ashore yet, or are there still protesters up there?
 
You might want to check out the relative size of their wages bill and their fuel bill before you post. PC's are not made from a raw material which has tripled over the last five years.

[broken link removed]
 
The ESB are getting a lot of grief (as expected) about the latest price hike, but like others have said, its hardly their fault. We import most of our energy into Ireland and they are at the mercy of the market prices.

Also, no one has mentioned the fact that of the €400+ million, they have actually given €300 back to the regulator to offset the price hikes for customers. The remaining €100million approx has to go to the Gov as they still own part of ESB. So they are actually making no profit this year.
 

No profit this year, is that right? Let me check....

Profit € 432,000,000
Back to regulator € (300)
Back to Gov. €(100,000,000)
Remaining profit €331,999,700
 

The 300m won't be given to the Govt until Jan 2009, just when the next price hike is due - the first price hike is effective in August, with no payback.

Agree, though, that failure to change our reliance on imported fuel has come back to bite us.
 
Which raises the question why do they need to give the goverment €100,000,000 rather than using it to bring down the prices.

Sure the ESB is owned by the goverment (and hence the tax payer) but why should this money go to the general tax bucket rather than be used to make ESB more green or to lower prices? €100,000,000 build a lot of windmills!

If the ESB is there to supply us with power in the interest of the public they should not make any profit, it should either be used to make it cheaper or to invest into the future like to reduce our depence on foreign sources.

All of our state companies (ESB, Gas, Dublin Bus) are not there to make profit so that it can be waisted on other ends, they are there to provide a service because competition is not there (or in case of Dublin Bus it's stamped out), so their profits should be used for the reason why they are there.
 
PC's are not made from a raw material which has tripled over the last five years.
Click to expand...
It takes energy to manufacture PCs. Transport and raw materials (eg, plastic) are also dependant on oil.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register