Mike Lyons, a dairy farmer in Ballymoe, Co Roscommon, says he was left paying farm electricity bills of €6,000 to energy provider Pinergy since Christmas.

Lyons milks 110 cows using two robots and said he paid some €25,000 to Pinergy over the course of 22 months.

Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal, the Roscommon man said he was on a “floating rate” of 48c/kWh and described how he “had to pay up to get out of it.”

He said: “There was no way to have my bill reviewed. No one would help or explain anything.”

Change

While warning that “one is bad and the other is worse,” Lyons said he was “forced” to change electricity providers recently after paying the “sickening” fees.

Having paid the rate of 48c/kWh with Pinergy, Lyons’ farm electricity is now provided by Bord Gáis at a rate of 15c/kWh for day time usage and 7.5c/kWh at night.

The dairy farmer said the energy use for both his milking robots has been professionally measured at 31,000kWh per year.

He said he has looked at investing in solar panels for the farm, but noted that the “grants are very poor” and “there is a cost that comes with all of these.”

They promised me a smart meter and went so far as to book a time for an appointment last summer, but there was no show on the day

Meter

“Frightened” by the size of the electricity bills he was receiving, Lyons said he convinced Pinergy to install a smart meter.

“They promised me a smart meter and went so far as to book a time for an appointment last summer, but there was no show on the day.

“They then made another appointment and a man came out and did a survey, only for me to never hear anything back.”

Investigation

After viewing the bills charged to Lyons, the Micro Renewable Energy Federation (MREF) has called for an investigation into the prices charged by some electricity providers, with chair Pat Smith saying there is “no justification for such a high kWh price being charged to any business.”

Pinergy said it “supports many hundreds of farmers across the country” and while it has “absorbed” some rising costs, it “unfortunately has also had to pass price increases on to customers”.