Cheapest Electricity Supplier in Ireland

The cheapest electricity deal in Ireland, as of August 2026, is Yuno Energy's one-year variable plan at an estimated €1,465 a year, followed by SSE Airtricity at €1,492 and Energia at €1,538. Those figures come from Switcher.ie, one of the price comparison sites accredited by the energy regulator, and they are for new customers on a first-year discount. There is a second answer, though. If you have never switched and never will, the cheapest supplier is Electric Ireland, whose standard rate works out around €1,868 a year while Pinergy's costs about €2,220 for exactly the same electricity. And there is a third answer if you have solar panels on the roof, because the supplier at the top of the league table also pays one of the lowest rates in the market for the electricity you export.

This page holds all three answers, and the arithmetic that separates them. Every figure is on the regulator's standard 4,200 kWh comparison basis unless stated otherwise, and every rate was checked against the source named beside it in August 2026. Prices are moving this year, so treat the table as a snapshot with a date on it, not a permanent ranking.

The Cheapest Electricity Deals Right Now

Switcher.ie's comparison, last updated 15 July 2026, ranks the cheapest first-year electricity plans for new customers like this:

Those annual costs include the 9% VAT rate, the standing charge and the PSO levy, and they assume the official average consumption of 4,200 kWh a year. Switcher puts the maximum electricity-only saving at €401 a year against a typical standard tariff, or up to €641 if you switch gas and electricity together. Money Guide Ireland, checking prices independently in July 2026, reached the same top two: Yuno at €1,466 in year one, SSE Airtricity at €1,492.

The Other League Table: What Standard Rates Cost

First-year deals expire. After roughly twelve months, every supplier moves you to its standard rate unless you switch again or renegotiate, and the standard-rate table looks very different. On Money Guide Ireland's July 2026 comparison at average usage, ranked from dearest to cheapest:

Two things fall out of putting the tables side by side. The first is the size of the spread: €1,465 on the cheapest deal against €2,220 on the dearest standard rate is a €755 gap for identical electricity. The second is that Electric Ireland, absent from the top of the deals table, is the cheapest place to do nothing. That is worth knowing, because most Irish households do nothing. If you are on any supplier's standard rate, the question is not whether Yuno beats SSE by €27; it is that any deal in the top table beats your current rate by €300 to €700.

The gap between an Energia discount plan and an Energia standard plan makes the same point within one company: €1,538 in year one, €2,075 after the discount lapses. The cheapest supplier in Ireland, in practice, is whichever one you switched to most recently. Our average electricity bill guide breaks down what is inside these annual figures, and why the 4,200 kWh benchmark they all rest on dates from 2017.

Why the Table Keeps Moving in 2026

This has been the busiest year for Irish electricity price changes since 2022, and every announcement redraws the table. The sequence so far, from suppliers' announcements as logged by Switcher.ie:

• 1 June: PrepayPower raised electricity prices by 8.8%, the first Irish supplier to increase prices in over three years.
• 1 July: Electric Ireland raised residential electricity bills by 8% on the estimated annual bill, about €138 a year, its first increase since October 2022. Yuno Energy raised electricity bills by 9.5%, its first increase since launching, and raised its solar export rate by 8% at the same time.
• 20 July: Flogas raised electricity prices by 10.9% for variable-rate customers, around €4.11 a week on an average bill.
• 1 August: Pinergy raised its EV night rate from 5.99c to 10.89c per kWh, an increase of roughly 82%, and cut its solar export rate from 25c to 18.5c per kWh ex VAT.

Behind all of it sits an uncomfortable baseline: Eurostat figures for the second half of 2025 put Irish household electricity at 40.42c per kWh including taxes and levies, the highest in the EU and nearly 40% above the EU average of 28.96c. Why prices are structured that way is a separate story, covered in our guide to Irish electricity prices in 2026. There is one scheduled piece of relief: the regulator has approved a 66% cut to the PSO levy from 1 October 2026, although approved network charge increases will claw back most of the difference on a typical bill.

The Catch If You Have Solar Panels

The league table above only counts electricity flowing one way. If you have solar panels, your supplier also sets the Clean Export Guarantee rate it pays you for every surplus kWh you send to the grid, and the two numbers do not move together. The supplier with the cheapest import deal can pay one of the weakest export rates, and in August 2026 that is exactly the situation.

Yuno Energy, top of the deals table, pays a clean export tariff of 17.16c per kWh, per its live pricing page. That is up 8% on its old 15.89c rate but still below SSE Airtricity's 19.5c standard rate, and below the 18.5c paid by Bord Gáis and Energia. Run the numbers on a 4 kWp system exporting 1,400 kWh a year, the illustrative export volume used across our export-rate guides. Households that self-consume less export considerably more, and everything below only gets stronger if you do:

The €27 gap between first and second place inverts. On these benchmark numbers, SSE Airtricity edges out Yuno for a typical solar exporter, and the ranking below them reshuffles too. The effect gets stronger the more you export, and stronger again for a solar household in a second way: your imports are well below the 4,200 kWh the table assumes, which shrinks every gap in the deals column while leaving the export gaps untouched. A league table built for the average house systematically overweights the import side for you.

Two caveats keep this honest. Export rates change, as Pinergy's August cut shows, and the arithmetic above uses the regulator's benchmark rather than your actual meter data. The point is not that SSE is the right answer; it is that no general-market cheapest table can settle the question for a solar home. Our Clean Export Guarantee league table tracks every supplier's export rate, and our guide to the best electricity plan for solar owners works through how to weigh import rates, export rates and standing charges together.

How to Actually Choose

If you are on a standard rate: switch to almost anything in the top table. This is the largest single saving available and it costs an afternoon. Use a comparison site accredited by the CRU, have your MPRN and annual kWh usage to hand, and diarise the contract end date so you can switch again before the standard rate returns.

If your usage is far from average: ignore the headline ranking and run your own kWh figure through the comparison. The table's order can change with your consumption, because plans mix unit rates and standing charges differently. Low-usage homes are hit proportionally harder by standing charges; high-usage homes should weight the unit rate.

If you have a smart meter and can shift usage: the cheapest 24-hour plan may lose to a time-of-use plan you never see in this table. Night-rate and smart tariffs price the same kWh differently by hour, which is a different contest entirely, covered in our night rate guide and our guide to dynamic tariffs, which launched in Ireland in June 2026.

If you have solar, or you are getting it: compare net cost, not import cost, as above. And if you are still at the quotes stage, the supplier decision is worth parking until you know your system size, because your export volume changes which supplier wins. Our solar cost and payback calculator gives you the generation and export numbers to plug in.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is the cheapest electricity supplier in Ireland in 2026?

For new customers switching in August 2026, Yuno Energy, whose one-year variable plan comes to an estimated €1,465 a year on Switcher.ie's comparison, ahead of SSE Airtricity at €1,492 and Energia at €1,538. All figures assume the official average usage of 4,200 kWh and include VAT, standing charge and PSO levy. For customers on standard rates, the cheapest is Electric Ireland at about €1,868 a year.

How much can I save by switching electricity supplier?

Up to €401 a year on electricity alone by moving from a typical standard tariff to the cheapest deal, per Switcher.ie in August 2026, or up to €641 if you switch gas and electricity together. The real figure depends on what you currently pay: a household on Pinergy or Flogas standard rates has more to save than one already on a discounted plan.

Who is the most expensive electricity supplier in Ireland?

On standard rates at average usage, Pinergy, at about €2,220 a year in Money Guide Ireland's July 2026 comparison, followed by Flogas at €2,166. Standard rates matter because that is what you roll onto when a first-year discount expires. The gap between the dearest standard rate and the cheapest new-customer deal is €755 a year.

Is the cheapest electricity supplier still cheapest if I have solar panels?

Not necessarily. Your supplier also sets the rate it pays for your exported electricity, and the cheapest importer can be a weak exporter. In August 2026, Yuno's 17.16c export rate trails SSE Airtricity's 19.5c standard rate; on a typical 1,400 kWh of annual exports, that difference is enough to overturn Yuno's €27 lead on the import side. A solar household should compare the net cost, imports minus export income, rather than the headline annual bill.

Why does my bill jump after the first year?

Because first-year prices are discount plans, typically 25% to 30% off the unit rate, and they lapse to the supplier's standard rate after twelve months. Energia illustrates the size of the step: €1,538 in year one on its 30% discount, about €2,075 on its standard rate afterwards. Switching again, or asking your existing supplier for a new discount before the old one expires, resets the clock.

Do headline discounts apply to the whole bill?

No. Percentage discounts apply to the unit rate only. The standing charge and PSO levy, roughly €270 a year combined on a typical urban tariff, are charged in full on every plan. That is why a 30% discount produces well under a 30% reduction in the annual bill.

Why are Irish electricity prices the highest in Europe?

Eurostat figures for the second half of 2025 put Irish household electricity at 40.42c per kWh including taxes and levies, against an EU average of 28.96c, which is the highest in the EU and works out at roughly €480 a year more than the average European household pays. Contributing factors include Ireland's reliance on imported gas for generation and the cost of running and upgrading the network. Our electricity prices guide covers the breakdown.

Will electricity get cheaper in Ireland soon?

One scheduled change will help: the CRU has approved a 66% cut to the PSO levy from 1 October 2026. But approved network charges will add about €41 a year to a typical bill over the same period, and 2026 has already seen increases from PrepayPower, Electric Ireland, Yuno, Flogas and Pinergy. Nothing in the current market suggests a return to pre-2022 price levels, which is why locking in a discount, shifting usage to cheaper hours, or generating your own electricity are the levers that remain within a household's control.