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Electricity bills and carbon tax

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  • 16-06-2020 10:14am
    #1
    Fabio
    Registered Users Posts: 2,259 ✭✭✭


    This might be a silly question but I thought I should ask anyway...

    I'm looking to switch electricity suppliers. Some of the deals available use 100% renewable energy, which is nice. Are those deals subject to carbon tax?

    Some of the deals don't use 100% renewable energy so I assume these would become more expensive if there is a carbon tax increase, despite the upfront cost one one or two of those being cheaper.

    What do you folks reckon?


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    #2
    L1011
    Registered Users Posts: 69,013 ✭✭✭✭L1011


    They are liable to carbon tax via the odd way its applied to electricity - the PSO levy. This is charged to everyone and used to subsidise renewables producers. Or if you don't judge that to be a carbon tax, they aren't liable to it at all but neither are other plans - there's no differences.

    The May increase did not affect electricity prices.


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    #3
    Fabio
    Registered Users Posts: 2,259 ✭✭✭Fabio


    L1011 wrote: »
    They are liable to carbon tax via the odd way its applied to electricity - the PSO levy. This is charged to everyone and used to subsidise renewables producers. Or if you don't judge that to be a carbon tax, they aren't liable to it at all but neither are other plans - there's no differences.

    The May increase did not affect electricity prices.

    Ah right. I see what you mean. I didn't think of the PSO levy.

    There's a €50 over the year in the difference between the 100% green supply and the other one. I thought I was being clever by maybe going with the 100% green supply to avoid a carbon tax levy but perhaps I should just go with whatever is cheapest.


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    #4
    L1011
    Registered Users Posts: 69,013 ✭✭✭✭L1011


    Go with whoever is cheapest and that you're willing to deal with customer services with if something goes wrong - I have had major issues with Iberdrola and there are constant complaints about Airtricity here also.


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    #5
    Fabio
    Registered Users Posts: 2,259 ✭✭✭Fabio


    L1011 wrote: »
    Go with whoever is cheapest and that you're willing to deal with customer services with if something goes wrong - I have had major issues with Iberdrola and there are constant complaints about Airtricity here also.

    Good points! Thank you!


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    #6
    Ten Pin
    Registered Users Posts: 2,836 ✭✭✭Ten Pin


    The PSO levy is due to increase in October...

    https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2020/0608/1146192-levy-increase-could-see-electricity-bills-rising/

    It's a "proposed" increase but that means it's definitely increasing but they have to accept submissions from whoever has an opinion on it before the final decision is made.

    It's currently about 35e per annum, it will increase by 70e in October, that's a trebling of the current amount.

    Very little if any mention in media about it, it's a substantial increase in a time that we're being told that renewables are getting cheaper all the time.


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    #7
    Fabio
    Registered Users Posts: 2,259 ✭✭✭Fabio


    Ten Pin wrote: »
    The PSO levy is due to increase in October...

    https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2020/0608/1146192-levy-increase-could-see-electricity-bills-rising/

    It's a "proposed" increase but that means it's definitely increasing but they have to accept submissions from whoever has an opinion on it before the final decision is made.

    It's currently about 35e per annum, it will increase by 70e in October, that's a trebling of the current amount.

    Very little if any mention in media about it, it's a substantial increase in a time that we're being told that renewables are getting cheaper all the time.

    That is mad. Jesus.


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    #8
    L1011
    Registered Users Posts: 69,013 ✭✭✭✭L1011


    Its currently at its second lowest in ten years and was as high as €92 a year (ex VAT) quite recently; so that might be why its not getting as much coverage as the headline increase would suggest on its own.


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    #9
    Allinall
    Registered Users Posts: 6,731 ✭✭✭Allinall


    Ten Pin wrote: »
    The PSO levy is due to increase in October...

    https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2020/0608/1146192-levy-increase-could-see-electricity-bills-rising/

    It's a "proposed" increase but that means it's definitely increasing but they have to accept submissions from whoever has an opinion on it before the final decision is made.

    It's currently about 35e per annum, it will increase by 70e in October, that's a trebling of the current amount.

    Very little if any mention in media about it, it's a substantial increase in a time that we're being told that renewables are getting cheaper all the time.

    I'd be fascinated to know how they got from €70 a year to €110 after accounting for VAT.

    Do we have a 57% VAT rate?


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    #10
    TheValeyard
    Registered Users Posts: 12,476 ✭✭✭✭TheValeyard


    L1011 wrote: »
    Go with whoever is cheapest and that you're willing to deal with customer services with if something goes wrong - I have had major issues with Iberdrola and there are constant complaints about Airtricity here also.

    What problems did you have with Iberdrola?

    All Eyes On Rafah



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    #11
    Ten Pin
    Registered Users Posts: 2,836 ✭✭✭Ten Pin


    I'd be fascinated to know how they got from €70 a year to €110 after accounting for VAT.

    Whoever wrote the article wasn't clear with their calculation.

    The current rate is 34.08 per annum.

    Approximately (because AFAIK CRU haven't given exact figures yet), the rate is trebling and VAT @13½; is added....

    34.08 x 3 x 1.135 = 116.04

    ...which is an increase of 77.36 per annum which is the biggest single increase. It did drop by 57 per annum in 2018 and an additional 9 in 2019. The proposed increase would bring it to 10 more than the 2017 amount.

    PSO levy history...
    https://www.bonkers.ie/guides/gas-electricity/what-is-the-pso-levy/


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    #12
    L1011
    Registered Users Posts: 69,013 ✭✭✭✭L1011


    TheValeyard wrote: »
    What problems did you have with Iberdrola?

    Basically their website and online billing systems has never been right

    At the start, it was impossible to log in
    Some WEEKS later I could log in but not view my bills

    I would be sent notifications of direct debits going out one or two days before they went out. Fairly certain this breaches the rules for doing DD, not bothered looking in to it. At least one bill was never notified at all - luckily I have very consistent usage!

    Have never been able to successfully give them a reading - I just give it to Networks instead for both meters.


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    #13
    Impetus
    Registered Users Posts: 1,667 ✭✭✭Impetus


    L1011 wrote: »
    Basically their website and online billing systems has never been right

    At the start, it was impossible to log in
    Some WEEKS later I could log in but not view my bills

    I would be sent notifications of direct debits going out one or two days before they went out. Fairly certain this breaches the rules for doing DD, not bothered looking in to it. At least one bill was never notified at all - luckily I have very consistent usage!

    Have never been able to successfully give them a reading - I just give it to Networks instead for both meters.

    According to

    https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=iberdrola.ie

    iberdrola.ie supports 29 weak cypher suites (which should no longer be used). Which is the sign of a sloppy, incompetent company which does not appear to care about customer data privacy.

    It also supports TLS 1.0, 1.1 (which have been deprecated) and does not support TLS 1.3 which prevents downgrade attacks and has other security features.

    So the personal data on all accounts would potentially be available to hackers working for neighbouring nation states (and others) - eg your name and address and DoB and IBAN and power usage etc.

    Which is none of their business.


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