Electric Ireland's standard rate is 38.04c per kWh including VAT, with an annual standing charge of €250.77 in urban areas and €314.98 rural. On the regulator's average 4,200 kWh household that is an estimated annual bill of €1,867.58. Its cheapest new-customer plan on paper is Home Electric+ SST Saver 20% at an estimated €1,403 a year, but that needs a smart meter and a willingness to avoid the 5–7pm peak. Two things catch people out. Discounts apply to unit rates only, never to the standing charge or the PSO levy, so a headline 8.5% is 7.3% off the actual bill. And any day/night plan carries a standing charge of €328.58 rather than €250.77, a €77.82 penalty you pay before saving a cent.
All prices on this page were read from Electric Ireland's own published pages on 17 August 2026 and include VAT at 9% unless stated. Rates took effect on 1 July 2026. If you want the story of that increase rather than the resulting price list, we cover it separately in our guide to the Electric Ireland price increase.
Every Electric Ireland Plan, Side by Side
These are the plans Electric Ireland offers a new customer. The rates already have the new-customer discount applied, which is why the same company sells electricity at anything from 29.81c to 38.65c per unit.
| Plan | Meter needed | Unit rate(s) | Est. annual bill |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home Electric+ SST Saver 20% | Smart | 32.43c day / 17.04c night / 34.60c peak | €1,403 |
| Energysaver Nightsaver 16% | Day & night | 34.12c day / 16.83c night | €1,505 |
| Home Electric+ Saver 20% | Smart | 29.81c flat | €1,522 |
| Home Electric+ Night Boost | Smart | 37.60c day / 18.54c night / 10.88c boost | €1,607 |
| Energysaver 16% | Standard | 31.95c flat | €1,612 |
| Green Electricity NightSaver | Day & night | 38.62c day / 19.15c night | €1,659 |
| Home Electric+ Weekender | Smart | 38.65c flat, one free weekend day | €1,749 |
| Green Electricity | Standard | 36.13c flat | €1,788 |
The estimated annual bill is Electric Ireland's own figure, built on the regulator's assumed 4,200 kWh household with an urban meter. We checked the arithmetic on the flat-rate plans and it reconciles exactly: 29.81c across 4,200 units plus a €250.77 standing charge plus €19.08 of PSO levy comes to €1,521.87, against the €1,522 published.
Notice what sits at the bottom of that table. Home Electric+ Weekender charges 38.65c a unit, which is more than the 38.04c standard rate that applies to a customer on no plan at all. You are buying a discount on one day by paying a premium on the other six.
Electric Ireland advertises both. First-year cost subtracts the welcome bonus, so SST Saver 20% shows €1,373 rather than €1,403 thanks to a €30 credit, and Energysaver 16% shows €1,492 rather than €1,612 thanks to €120. The bonus lands once. When you compare plans, compare the estimated annual bill, because that is the number you keep paying in year two.
The Standard Rate, If You Never Chose a Plan
Plenty of Electric Ireland customers are not on any of the eight plans above. They are on the standard variable tariff, which is what you drift onto when a contract ends and you do nothing.
| Charge | Excluding VAT | Including VAT at 9% |
|---|---|---|
| Unit rate, 24-hour meter | 34.90c per kWh | 38.04c per kWh |
| Standing charge, urban | €230.06 a year | €250.77 a year |
| Standing charge, rural | €288.97 a year | €314.98 a year |
| Standing charge, day/night meter (urban) | €301.45 a year | €328.58 a year |
| PSO levy (to 30 September 2026) | €1.46 a month | €1.59 a month |
| Estimated annual bill, urban 24-hour | €1,713.38 | €1,867.58 |
Compare the bottom line to the table above it. Sitting on the standard tariff instead of moving to Home Electric+ SST Saver 20% costs about €465 a year on the same usage. That is the single largest number on this page, and it takes a phone call to fix.
Why an 8.5% Discount Is Not 8.5% Off Your Bill
Electric Ireland offers what it calls enduring savings, which unlike the new-customer discounts do not expire after a year: a reduction for online billing, one for paying by direct debit, and one for taking gas as well. Together they come to 8.5%, or 5.5% if you only take electricity.
Those percentages come off your unit rates. They do not come off the standing charge, and they do not come off the PSO levy. On the standard tariff, unit charges are €1,465.80 of a €1,713.38 bill before VAT, which is 85.6% of it. The rest is untouchable.
So the discount arrives diluted. Our own arithmetic, using Electric Ireland's published rates:
| Headline discount | Annual bill | You save | Real reduction |
|---|---|---|---|
| None | €1,867.58 | — | — |
| 5.5% (electricity only) | €1,779.71 | €87.87 | 4.7% |
| 8.5% (dual fuel) | €1,731.78 | €135.80 | 7.3% |
None of that is hidden. It is simply never expressed the way a customer would want it expressed. The savings are still worth having, and worth asking for if you are not getting them, because they do not lapse after twelve months the way the new-customer discounts do.
Its First Year Cost help page gives an example for "an electricity customer entitled to an 8.5% savings" on an urban 24-hour meter. The deduction line in that table is labelled 5.5%, and the euro amount deducted is €73.29 from a €1,465.80 unit cost, which is exactly 5.0%. Three different figures in one example, as published on 17 August 2026. The page does carry a note that its examples are illustrative and may not reflect current prices, so treat it as a reason to check your own bill rather than proof of an overcharge. The rates elsewhere on this page come from Electric Ireland's live pricing pages, not from that example.
The Day/Night Standing Charge Nobody Mentions
Every plan on a 24-hour or smart meter carries the same €250.77 urban standing charge. Move to a day/night configuration, which includes Home Electric+ Night Boost, and it becomes €328.58. That is €77.82 a year extra before you have saved anything on a cheaper night rate.
Night Boost also charges more during the day than the standard tariff does. Stripping VAT and discounts out so the comparison is fair, its day rate is 36.5c against the standard 34.9c. You pay a premium on most of your electricity in exchange for a cheap window at night.
So how much of your usage has to happen at night before that trade pays? Working from Electric Ireland's undiscounted rates and standing charges, we get:
- About 18% of your annual electricity between 11pm and 8am, if you never use the 2–4am boost window.
- About 16%, if roughly a third of that night usage lands inside the 2–4am boost.
Below that, the standard 24-hour plan wins. Electric Ireland's own estimated annual bill for Night Boost assumes 29% of usage at night and another 8% in the boost window, which is 37% overnight in total. That is a realistic profile for a house charging an electric car or running a battery. It is not what a house with a kettle and a washing machine does, and this is why Night Boost can look cheap in a comparison table and land expensive on your bill.
If night rates are the part you care about, our guide to night rate electricity in Ireland works through the tariff maths across suppliers.
If You Have Solar Panels, Two Plans Behave Very Differently
Your plan choice does not change what Electric Ireland pays you for exporting. That rate is 19.5c per kWh regardless of which plan you sit on, and we track it on our Electric Ireland microgeneration rate page.
What the plan changes is the value of the electricity you keep. Every unit your panels supply to your own house is a unit you do not buy, so it is worth whatever your day rate happens to be. That produces two conclusions that run opposite to the usual advice.
Night Boost stacks well with solar. Its cheap window is 2–4am, when panels produce nothing, so it does not compete with your own generation. Meanwhile its higher day rate makes each self-consumed solar unit worth more than it would be on a cheaper flat plan. Add a battery charged in the boost window at 10.88c and you have covered the dark months as well.
Weekender collides with solar. Its free window is 08:00 to 23:00 on a Saturday or Sunday, which is exactly when your roof is already generating. You would be given free electricity at the one time you least need to buy any, while paying 38.65c for every unit the rest of the week. On the standard household profile, Electric Ireland's published estimated annual bill of €1,749 implies roughly €144 of electricity a year falls inside that free window, about 373 units. A solar household should expect to capture noticeably less of that, because its own panels are covering the same hours.
Which plan suits a solar home across all suppliers, rather than just Electric Ireland, is a bigger question and we answer it in our guide to the best electricity plan for solar owners.
Prepay Rates
Electric Ireland also offers prepay on selected Home Electric+ plans, with rates effective from 1 July 2026 and a further 0.5% off for having an online account.
| Plan | Rates | Est. annual bill (urban) |
|---|---|---|
| Home Electric+ 24hour prepay | 37.26c flat | €1,834.62 |
| Home Electric+ SST prepay | 40.54c day / 21.30c night / 43.25c peak | €1,686.17 |
Both are more expensive than the equivalent billed plans. Prepay buys control over when you spend, not a lower price.
Two Changes Landing on 1 October 2026
Every figure above is current, but two of the components change in six weeks, and they pull in opposite directions. Both were approved by the Commission for Regulation of Utilities on 29 July 2026 and neither is a supplier decision, so they will show up on your bill whichever plan or supplier you are on.
The PSO levy is being cut by 66%. The regulator approved the 2026/27 levy at €41.48 million, down from €125.38 million. For a domestic customer the monthly charge falls from €1.46 to €0.51 from 1 October 2026.
Network charges are going up. The same decision approved network revenue allowances that the CRU says will add about €41.25 a year to a typical domestic electricity bill, or €3.44 a month, applying from 1 October 2026 to 30 September 2027.
Put the two together and the PSO cut is comfortably outweighed. On the regulator's own figures for a typical domestic customer, the net effect from 1 October is roughly €2.50 a month more before VAT, around €30 a year. Coverage of the PSO reduction on its own reads like good news. It is a discount arriving inside a larger increase, and our page on the PSO levy in Ireland goes through what that charge funds and why solar does not reduce it.
VAT on Electricity Is Now Fixed Until 2030
Electricity and gas in Ireland carry the second reduced VAT rate of 9% rather than the 23% standard rate. That was introduced as a temporary emergency measure in 2022 and then extended in short increments, which made it a live risk to any household budget.
Budget 2026 ended that uncertainty by extending the 9% rate on gas and electricity to 31 December 2030. On the standard tariff, returning to 23% would add roughly €240 a year to a 4,200 kWh bill, so this is one of the larger pieces of good news in Irish energy pricing and it went almost unremarked.
How to Actually Use This Page
- Find your standing charge on your bill. If it says €328.58 a year and you have no electric car, no battery and no storage heating, you are on the wrong meter configuration for your usage.
- Check whether you are on a plan at all. If your unit rate reads 38.04c, you are on the standard tariff and paying about €465 a year more than Electric Ireland's cheapest smart plan.
- Ask for the enduring savings. Online billing, direct debit and dual fuel together are worth about €136 a year, and they do not expire.
- Compare estimated annual bills, not welcome bonuses. A €120 credit is worth less than a rate that is 2c cheaper for as long as you stay.
- If you have solar or are getting it, check the day rate, not the night rate. A higher day rate raises the value of every unit your panels keep at home.
Electric Ireland is one supplier among many, and it is not usually the cheapest. Our comparison of the cheapest electricity supplier in Ireland puts these rates next to the rest of the market, and electricity prices in Ireland 2026 covers where prices are heading.
Frequently Asked Questions
The standard variable unit rate is 38.04c per kWh including VAT at 9%, or 34.90c excluding VAT, effective from 1 July 2026. Discounted plans are cheaper: Home Electric+ Saver 20% charges 29.81c, Energysaver 16% charges 31.95c, and Home Electric+ Weekender charges 38.65c, which is higher than the standard rate. The annual standing charge is €250.77 in urban areas and €314.98 in rural areas, rising to €328.58 on a day/night meter.
On Electric Ireland's own estimated annual bills for a 4,200 kWh urban household, Home Electric+ SST Saver 20% is cheapest at €1,403, followed by Energysaver Nightsaver 16% at €1,505 and Home Electric+ Saver 20% at €1,522. The cheapest plan requires a smart meter and rewards avoiding the 5–7pm peak window. If you cannot shift usage away from the early evening, the flat-rate Home Electric+ Saver 20% at 29.81c a unit is the safer choice, because it carries no peak rate at all.
€250.77 a year including VAT for an urban 24-hour or smart meter, and €314.98 for a rural meter. A day/night meter configuration, which includes the Home Electric+ Night Boost plan, carries a higher urban standing charge of €328.58 a year. Standing charges were not changed by the 1 July 2026 price increase, which fell entirely on unit rates. No discount applies to the standing charge, so it is paid in full whatever plan you are on.
No. The 8.5% applies to unit rates only, not to the standing charge or the PSO levy. On the standard tariff for a 4,200 kWh urban household, unit charges are €1,465.80 of a €1,713.38 bill before VAT, so an 8.5% cut on units reduces a €1,867.58 annual bill to €1,731.78. That is a saving of €135.80, or 7.3% of the bill. The electricity-only version, worth 5.5% on unit rates, cuts the bill by €87.87 or 4.7%. Both figures are our own calculation from Electric Ireland's published rates.
Only if a real share of your electricity is used overnight. Night Boost charges a higher day rate than the standard plan (36.5c against 34.9c excluding VAT) and carries a day/night standing charge of €328.58 rather than €250.77, which is €77.82 more a year. By our calculation from Electric Ireland's published rates, you need roughly 18% of your annual usage between 11pm and 8am to break even, falling to about 16% if a third of that lands in the 2–4am boost window. Households with an electric car, a heat pump or a home battery clear that easily. Households without one usually do not.
No. Electric Ireland pays 19.5c per kWh for exported microgeneration regardless of which residential plan you are on, credited against your electricity bill. Your plan does change the value of the solar electricity you use yourself rather than export, because that offsets whatever your day rate is. On a plan with a high day rate such as Night Boost, each self-consumed unit is worth more than on a cheap flat-rate plan, which is a point most plan comparisons miss.
Usually not. The free window runs from 08:00 to 23:00 on your chosen Saturday or Sunday, which overlaps almost entirely with the hours your panels are generating, so you are handed free electricity at the time you least need to buy any. Meanwhile the plan charges 38.65c a unit including VAT for the rest of the week, higher than the 38.04c standard rate. Electric Ireland's published estimated annual bill of €1,749 implies about €144 of free electricity a year on an average household profile, and a solar household should expect to capture less of that than a non-solar one.
Yes. The Commission for Regulation of Utilities approved the 2026/27 PSO levy at €41.48 million on 29 July 2026, down from €125.38 million, cutting the monthly domestic charge from €1.46 to €0.51 from 1 October 2026, a 66% reduction. However the same decision approved network charges that the CRU expects to add about €41.25 a year, or €3.44 a month, to a typical domestic bill from the same date. The net effect is an increase of roughly €2.50 a month before VAT, so the PSO cut does not leave you better off on its own.
The second reduced rate of 9%, not the 23% standard rate. It was introduced as a temporary measure in 2022 and repeatedly extended in short steps. Budget 2026 extended the 9% rate on gas and electricity to 31 December 2030, so it is now fixed for several years rather than reviewed every few months. Every inclusive rate quoted on this page has 9% VAT applied.
Sources: All rates read from Electric Ireland's published pages on 17 August 2026 — new customer price plans, estimated annual bill, first year cost, smart meter prepay plans, Home Electric+ Night Boost and the 1 July 2026 price change announcement. VAT rates from Revenue — current VAT rates and the 9% energy extension to 2030 from Citizens Information — Budget 2026. PSO levy and network charge changes from 1 October 2026 from the CRU decision of 29 July 2026. Export rate confirmed on Electric Ireland's solar PV for homes page. The 4,200 kWh average annual consumption figure is the Commission for Regulation of Utilities benchmark used by Electric Ireland. Discount dilution, break-even and free-window figures are our own arithmetic from those published rates, and the assumptions behind each are stated in the text.
Published: 17 August 2026. Author: Neil Russell. Rates change; check your own bill against the tables above before switching.