Another energy supplier hits 170,000 electricity and 60,000 gas customers with double digit winter price hikes

Electricity prices are set to jump by 19pc, with gas going up by 29pc.

This latest rise will push up the annual cost of electricity for its customers by €340 over a year.

Gas customers of PrePayPower face paying an extra €428 a year.

When the new rise is implemented it will push the average annual cost of electricity for customers of the supplier up by €700.

This will mean the annual cost of electricity for a PrePayPower customer will be approaching €2,000.

Gas annual costs will rise by €900 over a full year.

This is PrePayPwer’s third price increase so far this year.

It last raised prices in July when the price of its electricity went up by 12.5pc and its gas by 21pc. Before that it raised its prices by a similar amount in April.

And in 2021 it raised its prices twice.

Daragh Cassidy of price comparison site Bonkers.ie said: “We know that those on lower incomes tend to use prepay energy more than other households so this will be a particularly tough blow for these households.

"Sadly, it’s almost a given prices will increase even more this winter unless urgent action is taken at an EU level to stem the rise in prices.”

It comes after SSE Airtricity last week said it pushing up its electricity charges by more than 35pc, and its gas costs by 39pc from the start of October.

Since the start of last year there have been 50-plus separate price rise announcements from the various electricity and gas providers in this country.

PrepayPower sells electricity and gas to retail customers on a pay-as-you-go basis.

The company has 170,000 electricity customers and 60,000 gas customers.

PrepayPower customers top up their meters and control their energy usage by means of a smartphone app or by purchasing credit in newsagents or other shops.

The supplier said it is expected that the changes will increase the cost on average by €6.53 for electricity and €8.24 for gas per week.

A PrePayPower spokesperson said: “Regrettably, surging international wholesale costs make customer price increases inevitable.

“Were it not for our extensive hedging operations, these increases would have had to be significantly higher. We continue to work hard to protect customers to the greatest extent possible from the impact of these international developments.”

Energy prices have more than doubled for large numbers of households, with more rises expected.