The scheme will work by capping the unit cost of gas and electricity, but there’s no update on heating oil.
Image source, Getty ImagesFurther details of how the government’s energy support scheme will apply in Northern Ireland are expected to be revealed later.
It is likely to include a “price guarantee” similar to that already announced for the rest of the UK.
The guarantee means a typical household in Great Britain will pay no more than £2,500 a year for electricity and gas for the next two years.
NI has a separate energy system meaning GB policies do not automatically apply.
At the time of the GB announcement the government said “the same level of support” would be made available to NI households.
It has been working with the NI Utility Regulator and NI energy suppliers to design a NI scheme.
The scheme will require new legislation to be passed at Westminster.
Finance Minister Conor Murphy and his counterparts in Scotland and Wales have called on the chancellor to fund the cap on energy prices through a windfall tax on the extra profits being made by energy companies due to high energy costs.
In a letter to Kwasi Kwarteng, they said they were “deeply concerned” about how they would bear the brunt of the cost of the support measures.
“Support should be funded by targeting the windfall gains in the energy sector rather than passing the cost to households through higher borrowing,” they said.
Heating oil scheme
The government has also said it will set up a fund to help people throughout the UK who use home heating oil.
That will be important for Northern Ireland where about two thirds of homes use oil.
However details of that scheme are unlikely to be finalised on Wednesday.
The SDLP has suggested that a voucher scheme, similar to the High Street Voucher introduced during the coronavirus pandemic, should be used to help with heating oil costs.
The party’s Stormont leader, Matthew O’Toole, has called on the government to provide 1,000 litres of oil to all domestic consumers over the next year.
“We are proposing a self-enrolment voucher scheme that would give families the power to purchase 1,000 litres of home heating oil with robust checks to be put in place by oil providers and with oversight from the Utility Regulator,” he said.
“The situation people are facing is bleak and time is quickly running out.”
The details of an earlier £400 energy support payment have still not been finalised for Northern Ireland.
GB households will get this through six reductions to bills, starting in October.
Northern Ireland households do not yet know when or how they will get it, though Economy Minister Gordon Lyons has suggested it will be delivered before Christmas.