One retailer in Northern Ireland sold ten times more energy top-ups than normal on Friday, the day before big price rises kicked in.
Increases in the cost of electricity and gas from some suppliers came into effect on Saturday, October 1.
SSE Airtricity, Electric Ireland and Click Ireland all put their electricity price up by about a third, while gas from SSE Airtricity went up by 28%.
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Ahead of this, tens of thousands of people across Northern Ireland rushed to purchase energy top-ups before the price hikes took hold.
PayPoint, which operates the top-up card system, described the rush for top-ups on Friday as "unprecedented", according to BBC News NI.
It said one retailer in Northern Ireland processed 45,000 energy top-ups on Friday, when it usually does around 5,000.
Those who pay for their energy through a monthly or quarterly billing system tried to submit their meter reading to their supplier on Friday, however, many householders took to social media to voice their frustration after not being able to access their supplier's website.
SSE Airtricity said they suffered a "major system outage" after "surging demand for online services." On Friday, they said their website reached double its peak capacity.
They said customers can submit a meter reading to customerservice@sseairtricity.com and "readings received by midday on 2 October will be honoured at the pre-price change rate".
Customers can also call 0345 601 9093 to leave a meter reading if they have their meter point reference number (MPRN).
In a statement shared on social media, SSE Airtricity said: "We experienced a major system outage on Friday, 30 September which impacted our online self-service platform and the SSE Airtricity app. This was caused by surging demand which reached double our peak capacity for online service requests.
"We apologise to all our customers for the inconvenience and would like to assure you that no customer will be financially impacted by this outage. Customers can submit a meter reading to customerservice@sseairtricity.com and all reads received by midday on 2 October will be honoured at the pre-price change rate. Reads submitted by email should include the subject line “Meter Read”.
"Our IT and Operational teams worked throughout the night and our systems have started to come back online and operate as normal. Our team are continuing to monitor for issues throughout the weekend and ask any customer experiencing technical issues to please bear with us and try again later.
"Pre-pay-meter customers can continue to purchase vends from usual outlets and online as our systems come available."
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