Peak-time electricity usage must be slashed to avoid power outages, the energy regulator has warned.

The Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) has ordered electricity suppliers to find ways to curb the surge in demand for power that occurs between 5pm and 7pm daily.

Muireann Lynch, an energy economist at the Economic and Social Research Institute, told Newstalk Breakfast that this could result in network tariffs and customers could pay the price.

"The CRU is proposing some changes for changes to those tariffs and only one of those tariffs is actually going to impact on domestic suppliers or or companies that supply domestic suppliers", she explained.

€26 extra on your bill

The proposal suggests that an additional €26 would be added onto everyone's energy bills to keep the lights on this winter.

Ms Lynch said that it's possible, but where that money comes from is ultimately up to the energy company.

"Do they just load an extra €26 on everybody's bill or hike up their tax? Do they add it on to the cost in a fixed portion of people's bill?"

"Ideally, what we'd like them to do in a way is to find a way to encourage us to reduce that peak time usage."

Smart contracts

But how likely would Irish people be to simply not use high energy appliances, such as the washing machine and dishwasher, between 5pm and 7pm?

Ms Lynch says Ireland was actually "ahead of the curve" in this area.

"About 10 years ago and we ran a randomised control trial on smart metres. So we picked a bunch of households and businesses, we gave them a smart meter and we got their permission to monitor their usage."

"So this is a tariff that charges you more between five and seven o'clock and then charges you very little between maybe 11 o'clock at night and 8am in the morning."

"If you want to own one of those tariffs, do you change your usage? The answer is yes."

"Certainly the probability of having power shortages is the highest it's been for a long time."

While many people in Ireland have smart metres, not as many take up a smart contract to match.

Those who have a smart contract can make significant savings, said Ms Lynch, but getting people to make the switch is still challenging as informational internationally campaigns have been largely unsuccessful.

"Certainly the probability of having power shortages is the highest it's been for a long time."

"However, we should remember that we do experience blackouts for other reasons - technical reasons - every time we have a big storm."

"I would hope that they would be shorter in duration, they probably more just occur around the peak."

"If we can avoid them that will be amazing, but unfortunately unless the wind blows our way we may be looking at that this winter."

Listen back to the full conversation here.