One woman has urged people to keep pressure on utility companies for excessively high bills.
Yvonne in Tipperary said her parents got a massive bill late last year.
It comes as the ESB Group's operating profit increased by €168 million in 2022, according to its end-of-year statements.
The company claims the profits from its generation businesses in both Ireland and Britain were the primary drivers of the €847 million accrued last year.
Yvonne told Lunchtime Live the ESB could not explain why the usage had jumped.
"They're both elderly, and they got a really high bill," she said.
"Their original bill was always roughly around the same.
"In November we received a bill and it was tripped what they used to be paying.
"It was €1,125.73 for 64 days ESB, which tripled what their usage was.
"I rang on behalf of my parents and I basically got the runaround for a long time".
'Usage had tripled'
Yvonne said she was told there was a fault in the house with one of the electrical goods, and she was asked to test each appliance.
"The bill originally that came, that was incorrect, said it was an actual reading and that kind of threw us off," she said.
"I looked at the meter and that's when I realised that the usage had tripled.
"My issue was, which they couldn't explain, how did they believe my two elderly parents had tripled the usage in the same period of time?"
They then got a second, higher bill for €2,258.
'They don't owe those bills'
Yvonne said she has a message for other people in a similar position.
"This is what I want for your other listeners to know: that they don't owe those extremely high bills," she said.
"What everyone needs to do is go and check the meter reading.
"I just feel for the all the older people out there, who are getting these bills and sitting in the cold - when they don't actually owe this money".
'Had to go through the whole process'
Yvonne said she had to be very persistent.
"My mom, after the first phone call, she would have given up and paid it," she said.
"It's only because I kept calling and kept emailing.
"When I finally sent in those details, they corrected the original incorrect bill.
"Two weeks later I got an email asking me for the same information I gave... previously on the phone.
"[This] shows that their complaints or email department aren't even opening the accounts [and] checking the notes to see what's happening.
"That's causing lots of issues, I don't think their staff is correctly trained how to deal with it.
"I had to go through the whole process with the second incorrect bill".
Yvonne said she was offered a 'goodwill gesture' credit on the account, but that is where the company stopped communicating.
"This was a goodwill gesture just for the inconvenience of this bill," she said.
"To my surprise, they emailed my brother - who's another nominated user on my parents account - to say, 'Oh we see you spoke to someone, the issue is resolved'.
"They didn't even email back, so they just fobbed us off and gave us the address for the Commission of Regulation of Utilities," she added.
Listen back to the full segment below:
