The best new-customer discount on the Irish market got smaller in September, at the same time as the rates it applies to got bigger. On 20 August, Electric Ireland's headline offer was up to 22% off unit rates with €150 cashback on the dual-fuel smart tariff. Today the best dual-fuel discount on its own switching page is 18%, and the bonus attached to it is €50. Two reductions were logged in between, on 7 and 14 September. Yuno Energy trimmed its cashback twice over the same period. Meanwhile SSE Airtricity, Bord Gáis Energy and Energia all raise unit rates in the first two weeks of October.
- Electric Ireland's best dual-fuel discount is now 18% with a €50 welcome bonus, on a 12-month contract. On 20 August the top offer was up to 22% with €150 cashback.
- Four separate reductions were recorded in three weeks. Yuno on 26 August and 4 September, Electric Ireland on 7 and 14 September.
- Four suppliers raise rates between 14 September and 12 October, so the discount is being applied to a higher number.
- A discount is a 12-month, new-customer lever. It resets when the contract ends, and the next one on offer may be smaller again.
- Switching is still worth doing. It is just no longer the whole answer to a bill that keeps climbing.
What Actually Changed in the Last Month
Discount changes do not get press releases. A price increase does, because suppliers are obliged to notify customers; a quieter trim to a new-customer offer just appears on the switching page one morning. The market's change log tells the story better than the headlines did.
| Date | Supplier | What changed |
|---|---|---|
| 15 July 2026 | Yuno Energy | Up to €270 cashback on electricity, €265 on dual fuel |
| 20 August 2026 | Electric Ireland | Up to 22% off the standard smart tariff; dual-fuel cashback raised to €150 |
| 26 August 2026 | Yuno Energy | Cashback values reduced on existing offers |
| 4 September 2026 | Yuno Energy | New-customer cashback reduced again on electricity and dual fuel |
| 7 September 2026 | Electric Ireland | Cashback reduced across select electricity and dual-fuel offers |
| 14 September 2026 | Electric Ireland | Discounts and welcome credit reduced across electricity and dual fuel |
Three weeks, four reductions across two suppliers, and the two highest offers on the table in mid-summer were both cut. This is what the end of an acquisition push looks like: the offers go up while suppliers are chasing switchers, and they come back down once the rate increase is signed off.
Electric Ireland's Page, Then and Now
Electric Ireland is the useful one to track because it is the biggest supplier and it publishes every plan with its unit rate attached. Here is what its new-customer switching page carries today:
| Plan | Discount | Bonus | Electricity unit rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home Dual+ Saver 18% | 18% | €50 | 30.55c/kWh flat |
| Electricity and Gas (standard meter) | 16% | €50 | 31.95c/kWh |
| Home Dual SST Saver 14% | 14% | €60 | 34.86c day / 18.32c night / 37.20c peak |
| Green Electricity & Gas | 8.5% | None | 34.99c/kWh |
Every one of those is a 12-month contract for new customers. The 22% figure quoted on 20 August is gone from the page, and the €150 dual-fuel cashback with it. The best combination available now, 18% and €50, is roughly four percentage points and a hundred euro behind where the market sat a month ago.
Read the unit rate beside the discount rather than the discount on its own. The 8.5% green plan charges 34.99c a unit; the 18% plan charges 30.55c. The percentage is measured against each supplier's own standard rates, so it tells you almost nothing about how one supplier compares with another. Our guide to the cheapest electricity supplier in Ireland ranks the plans on what they actually cost over a year.
The Rates the Discount Is Applied To
The other half of the squeeze is the autumn increases. Four suppliers announced one between mid-August and mid-September:
| Supplier | Effective | Electricity | Standing charge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pinergy | 14 September 2026 | +7.6% typical bill | No change |
| SSE Airtricity | 5 October 2026 | +8.9% typical bill | +6.1% |
| Bord Gáis Energy | 9 October 2026 | +9.1% unit rates | +7.2% |
| Energia | 12 October 2026 | +4.73% average | +5% |
A percentage discount off a higher rate is not the same deal as the same percentage off a lower one. If your unit rate rises 9% and your discount falls four points, the cash you hand over goes up on both counts. And the standing charge, which three of those four also raised, is the one line no discount and no solar array can touch — it is charged whether you use a unit or not. We set out where those charges come from in the guide to electricity standing charges in Ireland.
Every offer in the table above runs for 12 months. At the end of it you roll onto standard rates unless you switch again, and the offer waiting for you then is set by whatever the market looks like in late 2027. The only lever that does not reset each year is the number of units you buy in the first place.
Where Solar Fits In This
This is the honest version, not the sales one. Solar does not beat switching; it does something different, and the two stack.
A discount reduces the price of each unit for a year. Solar reduces how many units you buy from the grid at all, for the life of the system. On a typical Irish home, self-consumed solar electricity displaces units you would have bought at 30–35c, which is why a rising import rate quietly improves the maths on a system you already own. Our page on whether solar panels are worth it in Ireland works the payback through with current numbers, and the cost guide covers what a system runs to after the €1,800 SEAI grant.
Two cautions, because the export side has been moving the wrong way at the same time. Pinergy cut what it pays for exported electricity from 25c to 18.5c on 1 August. Most suppliers now sit at 18.5c or 19.5c, and Clean Export Guarantee rates are not guaranteed to hold. So build your expectations around the units you use yourself rather than the ones you sell. If you are choosing a plan as a solar owner, compare the whole package rather than chasing the export rate, which is the trap our guide to the best electricity plan for solar owners deals with.
What to Do Before the October Rates Land
- Check your contract end date. If your discount year has quietly finished, you are on standard rates now, and that is usually the single biggest saving available to you today.
- Compare on annual cost, not on the headline percentage. An 18% discount and a 22% discount at two different suppliers can leave you paying the same or worse. Switching is free and there are no exit fees on standard plans.
- Start now rather than in November. A switch takes roughly two to three weeks to complete once the cooling-off period is counted, so an application made this week may or may not land ahead of the October dates. The saving is worth having either way, and the offer on the table today is the one you are comparing against.
- Price the permanent lever too. If your bill is high because your usage is high, a discount is treating the symptom. Get quotes and compare the annual saving against what switching alone is worth to you.
Free quotes from SEAI-registered installers in your county, with a figure for what a system would generate and what it would cost after the grant. Takes about 60 seconds, no obligation.
Get Free Quotes →Frequently Asked Questions
On Electric Ireland's own switching page, checked on 21 September 2026, the largest discount is 18% off unit rates on the Home Dual+ Saver plan, with a €50 welcome bonus and a 12-month contract. Other suppliers publish their own offers, and the headline percentage is measured against each supplier's own standard rates, so it cannot be compared across suppliers directly. Compare the estimated annual bill instead.
Discounts and cashback are acquisition spending, and they rise and fall with how hard a supplier is chasing switchers. The reductions logged on 26 August, 4, 7 and 14 September came in the same weeks that four suppliers confirmed autumn price increases. The pattern is consistent with offers being pulled back once the rate rises were settled, though no supplier states a reason publicly.
Yes, particularly if your current discount year has ended and you have rolled onto standard rates, which is where the largest saving usually sits. Switching is free, there are no exit fees on standard plans, and the process usually takes about two to three weeks once the cooling-off period is counted. What has changed is that switching is a smaller lever than it was in mid-summer, and it resets every 12 months.
No. Discounts are applied to unit rates. The standing charge is a separate daily fee and it is unaffected, which matters this autumn because SSE Airtricity, Bord Gáis Energy and Energia all raised standing charges as well as unit rates. Solar does not reduce the standing charge either, for the same reason: it is charged regardless of how much electricity you take from the grid.
They are not alternatives. A switching discount cuts the price of each unit for 12 months and then resets; solar cuts how many units you buy from the grid for the life of the system. Most households that install solar also keep switching. If your bill is high mainly because your usage is high, the discount is the smaller of the two levers.
Published: 21 September 2026. Author: Neil Russell. Current Electric Ireland plan discounts, welcome bonus values, unit rates and 12-month contract terms taken from Electric Ireland's new-customer switching page on 21 September 2026. The dated record of offer changes and price-increase announcements is from the bonkers.ie price change calendar, read the same day. Supplier price-increase percentages and effective dates are as published in our own coverage of each announcement, linked above. Offers change without notice, so check the supplier's own page before switching.