Today marked the implementation of new price hikes for Electric Ireland and SSE Airtricity customers while in just 24 hours, similar increases will be seen from Bord Gáis Energy.
Homeowners were encouraged to submit their most up-to-date meter readings to avoid paying the fee for the highest tariff - so they would only be paying for what they actually use.
As a result of the rush, the SSE Airtricity website crashed on Friday afternoon as thousands of customers tried to submit their gas and electricity readings online before new higher prices kicked in.
READ MORE: Irish households have just days left to submit meter readings before next energy price hike
SSE Airtricity hen said it would honour any meter readings at the old rate submitted by midday on October 2.
In a statement on Saturday afternoon, the company 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 is 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.”
Back in August, the company announced the price change that would see a typical electricity customer’s bill increase by 35.4%, while a typical customer’s gas bill will see a 39%^ change.
This would result in an additional €1.62 per day on the average electricity bill and €1.40 per day on the average gas bill. Dual fuel household bills will increase by 37% on average, or the equivalent of €3.02 per day.
Meanwhile, Electric Ireland announced on September 1 that it would be increasing residential electricity bills by 26.7% and gas bills by 37.5% with effect from October 1 as well.
The increases would equate to €37.20 per month on the average residential electricity bill and €42.99 per month on the average residential gas bill - based on the estimated annual bill as defined by the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU).
Bord Gáis Energy also informed regulators and customers back in September that the average residential electricity bill would rise by €48.25 per month and the average residential gas bill will rise by €43.80 per month from October 2, 2022.
READ NEXT:
- Budget 2023 tax calculator: Find out exactly what tax and USC updates mean for you
Irish student living out of car because she can't get accommodation for college
Met Eireann's good news for all but two areas this weekend before grim change next week
Popular CBD brand recalled from Irish stores like Holland and Barrett after high levels of THC found
Crowds dance on roof and DJ plays in garden as gardai called to Project-X style party
Get breaking news to your inbox by signing up to our newsletter
