Wholesale electricity prices down almost 47% in past year
There was a decrease in the price of wholesale electricity in February 2024 with prices 15.3% lower than the previous month.
The price of electricity was 46.8% lower than in February 2023. This is the lowest price of wholesale electricity since the peak in August 2022.
According to the CSO Wholesale Electricity price index, prices last month still remain 56% dearer than 2015 prices, the base year used for the index.
The gradual drop since peak prices has been reflected in falling domestic electricity prices, and reduction in charges to customers from their suppliers the most of recent of which were introduced this month.
The figures are contained in the Wholesale Price Index published by the CSO today.
It also shows that producer prices for food products dropped by 9.3% in the 12 months to February 2024 and wholesale prices for construction products were down by 0.7% in the 12 month period, although they were up by 0.1% in the month to February 2024.
Domestic producer prices for manufactured goods were on average 3.3% lower in February 2024 when compared with a year earlier, while producer prices for exported goods rose by 3.7%.
Overall, manufacturing producer prices were 3.3% higher in the year.
Commenting on the drop in electricity prices Darragh Cassidy of bonkers.ie said if wholesale prices remain close to where they are, it’s highly likely we’ll see another round of price cuts in the second half of the year of between 10 – 20%.
“This comes on the back of two rounds of price cuts over the past six months that have seen electricity bills fall by around 20 to 25%,” he said.
“However even after this third price cut, presuming it happens, electricity prices would still be around 50 to 60 percent higher than what would, until relatively recently, have been considered normal levels.
“So even though the worst of the energy crisis has thankfully passed, we’re still a long way from a return to “normality”, whatever that may end up looking like,” he added.
Article Source – Wholesale electricity prices down almost 47% in past year – RTE
