The company behind the pay-as-you-go energy provider Prepaypower is launching a new bill pay service offering electricity supply to customers at what it says is the cheapest rate available on the market.
Yuno Energy claims its offering could save consumers here over €500 a year on their annual electricity bills.
"Customers can avail of a discounted unit rate of just 38.04c per kilowatt hour. This equates to an annual cost of €1,765 for those on a 24-hour meter with average consumption," Yuno explains in a statement announcing its launch.
The company says it will offer electricity on the basis of a monthly bill issued at the start of the calendar month.
The amount will be based on predicted energy usage by the household.
Customers with smart meters can then monitor their energy usage patterns through the company's app.
"At the end of the month, we'll charge for what you actually used," Cathal Fay, CEO of Yuno Energy told Morning Ireland.
"If you use more, you'll pay the difference between what we predicted and what you use and if you use less, you'll be refunded the difference between the two," he explained.
Mr Fay clarified that in the event of an overshoot on the predicted usage, the customer would be billed at the same 38 cent per kilowatt hour.
The service will be available to customers across the country.
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Currently, the service will only be available to domestic electricity customers, although the company intends to add a gas supply service and to extend its offering to commercial customers in time.
Standalone brand
Yuno Energy will operate as a separate business to Prepaypower, operating independently with its own app and a seven day a week call centre.
Prepaypower is the largest pay-as-you-go provider in Ireland with over 175,000 electricity and 60,000 gas customers.
Customers buy credit through a mobile phone app which they then use to pay for electricity as they consume it.
It recently emerged as the third cheapest supplier of electricity in the market here in a survey of providers carried out by the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities (CRU).
Four providers departed the market here in the space of a few months last year, including Panda Power which had around 50,000 electricity customers and 10,000 gas customers.
The providers left amid the surging cost of energy on the international wholesale markets.
Wholesale prices have dropped since then and energy providers have come in for criticism for their inertia in passing those price reductions on to their customers.
Electricity costs are estimated to have doubled for a typical household in the last two years.
Cathal Fay said there was still a lot of volatility in the wholesale energy market and wouldn't be drawn on when prices might fall for domestic electricity customers.
"Prices went to a trough in June, but they've increased since then. They're at two and a half times historic norms. Wholesale prices are still high," he said.
"All suppliers have their own hedging policies. It is a competitive market and suppliers will pass on decreases when they have the opportunity to do so."
"Bringing Yuno to the market, we believe that we're going to increase that competition substantially and that should help drive competition and moderation of those prices," he added.
Pinergy is alone among the energy providers to have cut prices in recent times.
The CRU analysis also uncovered a big disparity in the pricing on offer among the providers with a difference of around €900 per year between the least and most expensive providers.
Irish electricity prices still way above European average
Daragh Cassidy, Head of Communications at bonkers.ie, noted that Yuno Energy is the first new supplier to enter the Irish residential energy market in over three years.
"This is undoubtedly good news for Irish households which are currently faced with the most expensive electricity in the EU," Mr Cassidy said.
But he added that it is important for consumers to compare the market as depending on how much electricity they consume and the type of meter they have installed - standard, day/night, or smart - there may be cheaper deals with other suppliers.
"Hopefully this will force other suppliers to respond over the coming weeks and bring some much needed competition back into the market," he stated.
Mr Cassidy said the cost of electricity on the Irish wholesale market, from where all suppliers ultimately buy electricity for sale on to households, is still over double normal levels and is much higher than in most other EU countries.
"Back in 2020 before Covid and then the war in Ukraine wreaked havoc with energy prices, the average price of electricity for households was around 20 to 22 cent per kWh," he said.
"And on top of this many suppliers were offering new customers large, introductory discounts. So the best prices on offer now are still almost double that. This really goes to show the scale of the energy crisis," he added.
