We have competition in the domestic electricity supply business now. Maybe other parts of the country have had it for a while, but yesterday was the first time I received an offer to switch my electricity supplier from the state behemoth, ESB (people who work there don't like to hear it referred to as 'the ESB'). My initial reaction was, as you might guess, "Competition! Wooohooo!".
So I was open to what Airtricity was offering. The offer was a bullet point listing the benefits of switching from ESB to Airtricity. I read it. I read it again. And I checked once more to be sure. The reasons for switching are, basically, you can reduce your carbon footprint and it's easy to switch. Oh yeah, I forgot, you can "manage your account online". (Why anyone would want to manage their electricity account online is something I haven't figured out yet.)
What's missing is important. How much will it cost me to get my electricity from Airtricity? Will I save money? I don't know. There's no mention of the price on their leaflet. On their web site it looks like I'd pay pay more per unit during the day and less at night. I can't find any definition as to what constitutes "Day" and "Night" nor how they track my usage divided between the two. I suspect I'd end up paying more than I do with ESB. I'll pass.
