A new supplier has entered the Irish residential energy market for the first time in over three years.
Yuno Energy has begun supplying electricity to households, with an entry into the gas market expected to follow at some stage in 2024 or 2025.
The company is a subsidiary of pay-as-you-go electricity provider PrepayPower – but will offer a bill pay service and operate as a separate entity.
The supplier's entry into the Irish market comes on the back of recent figures, which show electricity prices in Ireland are the highest in the EU at around 80% above average.
Yuno Energy is offering households the choice of either a fixed tariff for one year or a variable-rate tariff.
Chief Executive Cathal Fay told Breakfast Business many people are likely on higher tariffs than they realise.
"If you haven't switched supplier in a year - and in fact most of us haven't - you'll be on your supplier's standard rate," he said.
"Yuno Energy's Fixed Discount Rate is €500 per year cheaper than the average of those other supplier standard rates.
"We charge 38.04 cent per kilowatt hour including VAT".
Wholesale energy contracts
Mr Fay said they are conscious of the cost to customers.
"We will deliver everything to the palm of your hand, in the way of the Yuno Energy app," he said.
"That'll help us to be efficient, although I will say that we won't compromise on customer service.
"That's something that customers are very clear [on]; they wanted to be able to call a call centre here in Ireland if they ever did run into a problem.
"We've invested in a call centre, that's one aspect of it".
Mr Fay said they can buy wholesale energy at lower rates than their competitors.
"When we're launching now, we have the advantage of not having purchased many of those hedging contracts that were at 10-times historic norms at this time last year," he said.
"So, we're not saddled with those contracts; we can offer a better rate to our customers by launching at this point.
"They're locked into those contracts; they have to pay those rates for energy for delivery this winter.
"We enter those same wholesale markets now, and purchase forward contracts at lower rates," he added.
Listen back here:
