Farmers face soaring electricity costs this year with electricity bills rising by up to 50% or higher, after a series of price hikes by all energy suppliers last year.

One of the best ways to save on your farm and house electricity bills – and mitigate these price hikes – is to switch supplier and sign-up on a new customer discounted tariff.

Farmers only need to sign up once with WeSwitchU.ie, which then carries out a review and assessment on all your electricity meters (including house and other farm meters) and processes your switch to the best tariff every year.

The below table illustrates the savings that farmers can make on their home electricity bills by house type.

The below table illustrates the savings that dairy farmers in particular can make on their electricity bills, by cow numbers.

Once you sign up with WeSwitchU.ie, you do not have to search year in, year out for better deals, as the company continue to pursue savings on an annual basis and do the switching for you.

“Before your contract expires we provide a breakdown of the best deals for your usage and switch providers on your behalf," said Brendan from WeSwitchU.

“By removing the main barriers to switching – hassle and time – you are guaranteed to always be on the best deal.”

Below is some information regarding the government's electricity credit.

The once-off credit will be automatically applied to all electricity customer accounts in the March/April billing cycle, so you won’t have to do anything to avail of it. 

ESB Networks will make payments to energy suppliers who will in turn credit all their domestic electricity account holders with the €200.

If your bill is more than €200 then the credit will be eaten up in a single bill.

If however, your bill is less than the €200 credit, then the balance of the credit will be carried over into the next bill and you’ll get the benefit of the rest of it then. 

Basically, each customer account/meter will benefit from €200 credit only, whether that’s over one billing cycle or more. 

Yes, if customers have more than one meter, e.g. separate farm and house meters, then they will benefit from the credit twice. 

Switch supplier and sign-up on a new customer discounted tariff, otherwise the credit is paid to your existing energy supplier, the very same company who charge you more than what they charge a new customer - loyalty is not rewarded, same product at the end of the day, only cheaper.

WeSwitchU is an independent and impartial auto-switching service, with the sole objective to save customers time, money and hassle on their electricity bills. The fee for the service is a small percentage of the savings made on behalf of customers.

Click here, to visit the WeSwitchU farmer homepage; fill out the form and WeSwitchU will be in touch with the next steps..

Alternatively, you can call WeSwitchU on: 087 649 0803, to see what they can do to save you money on your electricity bills.