EU competition law forbids former monopolies such as the ESB from using profits from one division to subsidise another part of the business, in this case its retail arm Electric Ireland. Photograph: Aidan Crawley
The slightly back-to-front announcement comes in wake of several bust-ups with the North’s energy regulator, a significant decline in its customer base and presumably mounting losses . ESB could have used its massive profits from generation – it reported after-tax profits of €868 million for 2023 – to bail out Electric Ireland’s ailing Northern Ireland business, something it is forbidden from doing in the Republic.
And while it has decided to stop subsidising its loss-making Northern Ireland retail unit , it has pushed tens of millions into its loss-making British unit, So Energy. ESB’s move to jettison its Northern Ireland retail arm while keeping faith with the British one, is likely just hard-nosed business decision-making. It is perhaps based on So Energy’s potential to grow and scale up in the more dynamic British energy market.
At the height of the crisis, So Energy appointed financial advisers in a bid to secure £50 million of emergency funding but this plan was shelved when wholesale prices stabilised.