PrepayPower have announced plans to freeze electricity and gas prices for customers this winter.
PrepayPower is the largest pay-as-you-go electricity and gas supplier in the country, with almost 180,000 electricity customers and 60,000 gas customers. This latest announcement will mean that their customers, which stands at close to 200,000 will be guaranteed to see no price increase until March next year at the earliest.
If a customer from the supplier has both an electricity and gas account, they are counted in the numbers for both energy categories. The company have stated that this price freeze comes "despite rising wholesale energy costs and concerns over European gas supplies at a time when most customers are fearing energy price increases".
This comes after PrepayPower had increased its electricity prices by 8.8% and gas prices by 10.6% in June.
PrepayPower had previously announced a price freeze for last winter, akin to its sister company, Yuno Energy, while most of the main energy providers have increase their rates for customers this year.
This comes as the Commission for Regulations of Utilities (CRU) submitted a set of enhanced protection measures for energy customers for this winter. These include a change to repayment terms for customers who are in arrears.
The CRU have said that these must plans must reflect what customers can afford, treating upfront payments as optional instead of mandatory, allowing for customers to have at least 18 months to repay any debts.
It also stated that suppliers "should first seek practical solutions within their own support frameworks before referring customers in difficulty to organisations such as MABS or SVP".
According to new figures from the CRU, July saw 14% (322,234 of domestic electricity customers were in arrears, while more than a quarter (27% or 188,882) of domestic gas customers were also struggling to pay bills.
While the average value of an electricity account in arrears was more than €500, while the average account for gas customers was over €200.
The CRU have confirmed that the maximum proportion of pre payment meter top up used to recover legacy debt is to remain at 15% fir this winter, and suppliers must also advise any pre payment customers who are in arrears about other way of paying their debts.
The charge of €200 for moving from a gas pay as you go meter to a credit meter will remain suspended. They will also have yo place customers who are struggling financially with meters on their lowest cost tariff and provide trained staff and dedicated support contacts.
They also most promote the 'vulnerable customer register' by SMS/email and on their websites by 4 December this year.
There is also a five month disconnection moratorium for special service customers, provided with full protection for critical services customers.
