According to an article in the Irish Independent today, we are to face further increases in our energy bills.  With the extended bitter wintery conditions that we are experiencing at the moment, we will all face a significant rise in our energy bills not least our heating bills.  This very late freezing weather is set to last well into next week.   This will have devastating effects on many Irish household budgets already stretched to breaking point.  Although we must continue to battle with freezing temperatures.

It was reported late last year that more than three hundred thousand cash strapped homes were struggling to pay their energy bills.  Many of these households were reported to be installing pay-as-you-go meters in their homes as a means to deal with their escalating energy bills.  This decision was taken in the hopes that it would help them to keep track of their rising costs.

The current weather conditions will put extra pressure on energy supplies.  It has been reported that this bad weather has created a shortage in gas and sent reserves of gas to record lows in the United Kingdom.  This is very likely to influence the wholesale gas and electricity costs to suppliers here.  Over six hundred thousand households heat their homes using gas.  Gas is also used to generate electricity and much of the gas used to generate Irish electricity is British.

It is feared that the electricity and gas suppliers will pass on the higher costs that they are paying to the end user, the householder.  The Irish consumers have already had to deal with several increases in energy prices over the last couple of years.  The additional cost of heating our homes during this prolonged winter will concern most of us but more worrying is the thought of further increases in the cost of future energy bills.