![\"File](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/15_JS317025319.jpg\")
<\/p>\nIt is the biggest hike in electricity charges ever seen in the market and comes as a huge blow to EV users, with those using solar panels also affected by the move<\/p>\n
Households may get protection from global gas price spikes, but ministers have yet to confirm how much people could save(Image: Jacob King\/PA Wire)<\/p>\n
One energy supplier has announced a major increase to the price of its electricity night rate, a major blow to many consumers<\/a>.<\/p>\n The night rate is extremely popular with EV car users, as well as many people who time appliances to run at the discounted rate in a bid to stay on top of mounting energy costs<\/a> in recent years.<\/p>\n However, Pinergy is hiking its night rate by 82pc, one of the biggest increases in electricity charges<\/a> ever seen in the market, reports the Irish Independent.<\/a><\/p>\n Customers who signed up for the company’s Lifestyle Drive Time Plan are currently charged just 5.49c per kilowatt-hour (kWh) between 2am and 5am, excluding Vat.<\/p>\n From August 1, the Lifestyle Drive Time Rate goes to 9.99c kWh.<\/p>\n \u201cFollowing a review of our residential offering, Pinergy believes the time is now right to update the pricing of the Lifestyle Drive Time Plan and Microgeneration Export Payment to better reflect current market conditions and the costs of delivering these services,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n However the supplier has confirmed it is not changing its general rates.<\/p>\n Not only is the night rate popular with EV users, but many households also charge their solar panel batteries overnight.<\/p>\n In addition, Pinergy confirmed it will cut what it pays to people who export electricity to the grid from solar panels.<\/p>\n The company has confirmed it will give those impacted the option to exit their current contract without penalty if they want to switch. The normal penalty is around \u20ac50.<\/p>\n Speaking about the increase, Daragh Cassidy, head of communications at price comparison site Bonkers.ie, said: \u201cThe unfortunate fact is that as more and more people embrace EVs and solar panels with battery storage, which people usually charge at night, the demand \u2013 and therefore the price \u2013 on electricity at certain off-peak hours is going to increase.\u201d<\/p>\n He added: \u201cThis is obviously a huge increase, so any affected Pinergy customer should take the time to see whether the plan is still right for them.<\/p>\n \u201cI welcome the fact that Pinergy is allowing customers exit without penalty if they want to.\u201d<\/p>\n It comes after Electric Ireland and Yuno Energy price hikes came into effect this month.<\/p>\n However Electric Ireland has no plan to increase the payment it makes to households that export electricity from their solar panels to the grid.<\/p>\n Want to see more of the stories you love from RSVP <\/a>? To add RSVP as a preferred source of news on Google, simply click here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It is the biggest hike in electricity charges ever seen in the market and comes as a huge…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":532255,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[1312,943,246,61,60,82],"class_list":["post-532254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-consumer","tag-cost-of-living","tag-environment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=532254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532254\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/532255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=532254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=532254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=532254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}