Northern Ireland's utility regulator has said the entry of Airtricity into the domestic electricity market is good news for consumers.
Ian Osborne welcomed the Scottish-owned energy company's decision to challenge Northern Ireland Electricity's domination north of the border.
Airtricity, which already has 200,000 domestic customers in the Republic, is hoping to convince Northern householders to change supplier with a pledge to undercut NIE's rates by 14% until September 2011.
The company's expansion will create 75 new jobs, primarily in sales. It is the leading renewable energy generator in the region.
The Regulator said customers had long called for more competition in the local market.
‘Consumers have told us that they want a choice of electricity supplier and we have worked vigorously with potential suppliers to make this happen’, Mr Osborne added.
The creation of an all-Ireland electricity wholesale market in 2007 opened up Northern Ireland to competition.
While Airtricity is already providing around 11,000 business customers in the region and operates six wind farms north of the border, this afternoon's announcement marks its arrival into the local domestic market.
Its entry will be phased, with an initial limit on the number of homes that can switch to the new provider set at 6,000 a month, with an upper cap of 125,000.
These figures are to be reviewed over the coming year.
NIE currently supplies 700,000 domestic customers in Northern Ireland.
