Electric Ireland Price Increase 2026: The New Rates, and What They Do to Solar

Electric Ireland increased residential electricity bills by 8% and gas bills by 7.7% on 1 July 2026. The electricity rise all lands on the unit rate, which went up 9.5%. The standard 24-hour rate is now 38.04c per kWh including VAT. Standing charges did not move. For the average household that works out at €2.66 a week, or about €138 a year, on top of what you were already paying. It is the supplier's first price increase since October 2022, and Electric Ireland blames sustained pressure on wholesale energy costs from the conflict in the Middle East.

What Electric Ireland Announced

On 28 May 2026, Electric Ireland confirmed it would raise residential electricity prices by 8% and residential gas prices by 7.7% from 1 July 2026. The company supplies around 1.1 million electricity customers, so this is the price change most Irish households will actually feel this year.

The structure of the increase matters if you have solar panels, or are thinking about them. The 8% is the effect on the average bill. The unit rate itself, the price of each kWh you draw from the grid, rose by 9.5%, while the standing charge and the PSO levy (€1.46 a month) stayed where they were. In other words, the entire increase is on consumption. The more units you buy, the more this costs you; the fewer you buy, the more you dodge.

Electric Ireland points out this is its first increase since October 2022. In between it cut electricity prices twice and gas three times, and froze electricity prices over the winter just gone while several competitors put theirs up. That run is over: the company says the conflict in the Middle East has pushed its wholesale energy costs up far enough that it can no longer hold the line. It isn't alone: by mid-June, national media were reporting it as the fourth Irish supplier to announce an increase this year.

The New Rates in Full

These are the rates Electric Ireland published with the announcement, effective 1 July 2026. VAT on electricity is calculated at the reduced 9% rate.

Standard (non-smart) rates

Smart Standard Tariff (SST) rates

Annual standing charges (unchanged)

On the gas side, bills rise 7.7%, which is €2.25 a week or €116.78 a year on the average bill. The gas unit rate is up 9.5% and the gas standing charge is unchanged. Carbon tax on gas runs at €126.28 a year.

If You Already Have Solar, Your Panels Just Got a Raise

Here is the part that doesn't make the news bulletins. Every kWh your panels generate that you use yourself is a kWh you don't buy from the grid. Before 1 July, each of those self-consumed units saved you roughly 34.7c on the 24-hour standard rate. Now it saves you 38.04c. Your system's output didn't change; what each unit is worth did.

Put numbers on it: a household self-consuming 2,000 kWh of its own solar a year now avoids about €761 of grid electricity at the new rate, up from about €695 before the increase. That's an extra €66 a year for doing nothing, and the effect scales with the size of your system and how much of its output you use directly.

Meanwhile Electric Ireland's microgen export rate, the price it pays you for units you send to the grid, stayed at 19.5c/kWh. So the gap between what a unit costs you (38.04c) and what you get for exporting one (19.5c) has widened to over 18.5c. The economics keep tilting the same way: use your own solar first, export what's left. That's the argument for load-shifting (running the immersion, dishwasher and EV charger during daylight), and it strengthens the case for battery storage, which lets you soak up daytime surplus and spend it during the 43.25c smart-tariff peak.

If you're on a smart tariff and exporting a lot, it's also worth checking whether 19.5c is still the best export rate available to you. Our Clean Export Guarantee comparison tracks what every supplier currently pays.

If You've Been Weighing Up Solar, the Maths Just Improved

Solar payback in Ireland is mostly a function of what grid electricity costs. When the unit rate goes up 9.5%, the annual saving from a solar system goes up broadly in step, and the payback period shortens. Nothing about the system got cheaper. The electricity it displaces got dearer.

The rest of the picture is unchanged and still favourable: the SEAI solar grant pays up to €1,800 towards a home system, supply and installation carry 0% VAT, and a typical 4 kWp system generates in the region of 3,400–3,900 kWh a year depending on where in the country you are. Our solar panel cost guide has the full price and payback breakdown by system size.

Three Ways to Blunt the Increase

1. Compare and switch. Electric Ireland says it still has one of the lowest standard variable tariffs on the market, and that may well hold. But standard variable tariffs are what you drift onto, not what you shop for. New-customer discounted plans across the market are routinely well below any supplier's standard rate, so if you've been on the same tariff for over a year, a switch is the fastest money you'll save this year.

2. Shift your load. The new smart-tariff structure prices the 5pm–7pm peak at 43.25c against 21.30c at night. Anything you can move out of that two-hour window (washing, drying, charging) is now worth twice as much to move as the night rate suggests.

3. Generate your own. The increase is entirely on the unit rate, which is precisely the charge solar panels attack. Standing charges you pay no matter what; units you don't have to buy.

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