So the ESB chairman claims he wants to reduce prices by 5%-10%

G

GeneralZod

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But the nasty regulator won't let him do it citing "competition". Like residential customers have a lot to choose from already.

If Tadhg O'Donoghue is serious and not just trying to score points against the regulator let him set aside the money until he can give it back to us. Perhaps they could build another pumped storage facility to smooth out all the wind power that's being connected to the grid.
 
was listening to newstalk at lunch there the guy commentating on it said the 2 million households are paying 80 - 100 over the odds a year (that's a lot of lolly!) and that the regulator wants the money kept high because of some eu directive to encourage competition. But his argument (sorry didn't catch who he was) said that that's fine for big european countries but that we are too small consumer wise in the bigger picture to attract such competition!
 

He is not serious and he is trying to score points against the regulator. While the regulator sets a maximum price for domestic customers, the ESB is free to reduce prices for this market unilaterally. If he really thinks domestic customers are being overcharged, it is within the ESB's power to cut their prices immediately.

The regulator sets prices for the ESB in the business sector which it is not allowed discount from. This is to prevent the ESB using predatory pricing to drive competitors out of the market.
 
According to this [broken link removed] in yesterday's IT (doesn't seem to need registration) the ESB can cut prices for domestic consumer's through a subsidiary company ESBIE (ESB Independent Energy) but it's only supplying power to the business market.

I'd like to see a lot more strategic leadership from all sides on shifting energy production away from fossil fuels in the national interest.
 

The regulator was on Matt Cooper this evening and said something to the effect that the ESB would have to seek approval before reducing prices by approaching him. He would be quite consider such an approach to see that it wasn't predatory. He has received no such approach from the ESB!

So it sounds to me like the ESB want to be able to lower prices to their customers without lowering the wholesale price to their competitors?
 
I must say I'm extremely sceptical about this.

Are they simply asking for freedom to change their prices faster?
The cynic in me is thinking that they are asking for greater fluidity so that in future they can raise prices faster.
Fossil fuels - gas and oil, are scarce commodities and likely to only increase in price in the future, if i was a cute hoor in the esb, I'd loosen the strings now so that I had greater flexibility in the future.

Am I being too paranoid here?, it seems hugely unlikely to me that any company willingly would reduce their prices unless there was some downstream benefit?
 
Does he really expect people to believe that he wants to reduce prices for power supplied into a sector (domestic consumption) in which his company holds a total monopoly?
The ESB is still grossly overstaffed and pay their workers way over the average for what they do, their raw material costs are increasing massively (everything from oil and gas prices to the cost of constructing new plants) so how can they afford to cut retail prices?
I think RiceCakes might be correct (I hadn't thought of that).
 
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