Ofreg today issued its response to the price increase announced by Phoenix Natural Gas.
Dermot MacCann Acting Head of Ofreg commented
“Customers will be only too aware that this increase of 17.3% follows on from an earlier increase in October of 30%. Both of these increases were driven by unprecedented rises in underlying wholesale gas costs. Raw wholesale gas costs now represents over 62% of the costs that Phoenix consumers see in their final bills and unfortunately it is therefore not surprising to see this sort of significant price rise coming through here.
We understand that a price rise of this size is a significant blow to gas users in Northern Ireland, and particularly to those less well off households where difficulties with rising energy costs are already a real issue. Therefore Ofreg will continue to work with Phoenix and its owners, the General Consumer Council and relevant Government Departments to ensure that gas costs are kept as low as possible.”
Notes for Editors
1. OFREG (the Office for the Regulation of Electricity and Gas) supports the Northern Ireland Authority for Energy Regulation (NIAER) the regulator of the Electricity and Gas industries in Northern Ireland. NIAER’s powers are derived from the Electricity (Northern Ireland) Order 1992, the Gas (Northern Ireland) Order 1996 both as amended by the Energy (Northern Ireland) Order 2003.
2. Under the relevant legislation, transmission and distribution (together known as conveyance) and the supply of natural gas are licensable activities in Northern Ireland. Phoenix was first granted a licence in 1996, at which point it started to build its new gas network. The licence gave it exclusive rights to transmit, distribute and supply gas in an area which included Larne and the Belfast conurbation.
At that time, British Gas had a controlling interest in Phoenix which it continued to hold until 2003. East Surrey Holdings (who’s primary business was East Surrey Water a water company based in the south east of England) acquired Phoenix outright in December 2003. In October 05 East Surrey Holdings was purchased by Kellen Acquisitions Limited (Kellen), an acquisition vehicle for the private equity house Terra Firma. Kellen later sold the water company but remain the sole owners of Phoenix.
3. The Phoenix gas network now covers approximately 230,000 of the 300,000 properties in the area covered by its licence 93,000 of those properties are currently connected to the network.
For further information contact Terry McErlane at Weber Shandwick Telephone 028 90761007 or 07770886911