ENERGY supplier Pinergy has announced a third electricity price rise this year.

Experts said there was now a crisis in the Irish energy market.

The latest Pinergy rise will add €188 to the annual bill of the average householder.

Taken together the three rises will see average annual bills shoot up by €360.

There have been a number of energy suppliers that have announced two price rises this year. Pinergy is the second after Panda Power to impose three rises this year.

Pinergy said it standard unit rate of electricity unit rate will go up by 11.4pc from August 23.

This will mean an additional cost of €3.61 a week for a typical household, or €188 a year.

In April it pushed up electricity prices by 4.2pc, and by 8.2pc last month.

It blamed what it said was a well-publicised and sustained issues in the wholesale energy market and national grid which is causing unprecedented pricing pressures.

Pinergy chief executive Enda Gunnell said: “Regrettably, due to the continued and significant infrastructural supply issues and wholesale pricing outside our control, we will have to increase prices again to our customers.

“We have raised these issues on behalf of our customers with both policy makers and regulators in recent weeks.”

And he warned the current cycle of price increases is likely to continue until real action is taken.

“We had hoped the energy transition to net zero carbon would be smooth. Regrettably, it seems that homes and businesses will have to bear the increased costs, at least in the short term.”

Electric Ireland, which has more than one million electricity customers, said recently that it is to increase electricity and gas prices next month.

The State-owned energy company said electricity prices are to increase by 9pc from August, in a move that will add €100 to the average annual bill.

Gas is going up by 7.8pc, adding €60 to the average bill.

Electric Ireland, the largest supplier in the market, last increased its prices in the autumn when it raised electricity prices by 3.4pc.

Almost all the energy suppliers in the market have now increased prices this year, with some increasing prices twice this year.

Daragh Cassidy of price comparison site Bonkers.ie said: “There seems to be a crisis in the energy market at present as rapidly increasing prices in the wholesale cost of energy are being passed on to consumers.”

He said price increases of this magnitude are unsustainable.

And coupled with recent concerns about potential power outages and pressure demands on the grid, questions need to be asked about how the market is being managed.