{"id":436,"date":"2026-09-04T10:00:59","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T10:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yovao.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/04\/energy-supplier-firmus-to-raise-bills-by-up-to-12-5-in-belfast\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T10:00:59","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T10:00:59","slug":"energy-supplier-firmus-to-raise-bills-by-up-to-12-5-in-belfast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yovao.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/04\/energy-supplier-firmus-to-raise-bills-by-up-to-12-5-in-belfast\/","title":{"rendered":"Energy Supplier Firmus to Raise Bills by Up to 12.5% in Belfast"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Energy provider Firmus Energy has announced tariff hikes for customers across Northern Ireland, with increases ranging from 9% to 12.5% depending on location.<\/p>\n<p>The new rates take effect in early October. Customers in the Ten Towns region will see an 8.98% increase from October 1, while those in Greater Belfast face a steeper 12.5% rise starting October 8.<\/p>\n<p>The company said the hikes reflect rising gas costs on global energy markets amid the prolonged Middle East conflict. Around 77,000 households and small businesses in the Ten Towns area, including Antrim, Armagh, Ballymena, and Coleraine, will pay roughly \u00a37 more monthly on average bills.<\/p>\n<p>In Greater Belfast, approximately 54,000 customers will see their bills increase by about \u00a312 per month.<\/p>\n<p>Sharleen Winning, head of regulation at Firmus Energy, acknowledged the difficult decision but stressed it was unavoidable given current market conditions. The firm held off raising prices longer than competitors, hoping for a resolution that would ease global wholesale costs.<\/p>\n<p>The announcement follows similar moves by SSE Airtricity, Northern Ireland&#8217;s largest gas provider, which recently reported plans to boost prices by nearly 19% from October 1 across its 200,000-customer base.<\/p>\n<p>Leigh Greer from the Utility Regulator urged concerned customers to contact their suppliers immediately. Payment plans and support options are available for those struggling with higher bills.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Utility cites Middle East conflict-driven gas costs as households face another wave of higher energy prices.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1078,92,1076,1079,33,1077],"class_list":["post-436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","tag-bills","tag-business","tag-energy-prices","tag-firmus-energy","tag-middle-east","tag-northern-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yovao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yovao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yovao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yovao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yovao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/yovao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yovao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yovao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yovao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}