Electricity prices in Ireland
What a household in Ireland pays for electricity, where the power comes from, and how the country differs from its neighbours.
Ireland's electricity is traded across a border. The Republic and Northern Ireland form one wholesale market, the all-island Single Electricity Market, where the same prices apply in Dublin and Belfast. Gas and wind make most of the power, and because the island is small and only loosely tied to its neighbours, wholesale prices react strongly to the weather and to the cost of imported gas.
For households the result is one of the higher electricity bills in the European Union. There is no regulated tariff or price cap in the Republic: suppliers set their own unit rates and standing charges. This page shows Eurostat's official household prices for Ireland and the country's generation mix year by year.
The exchange's hourly prices in Ireland may not be freely republished, so this page does not show them. The household prices here are Eurostat's official figures, updated every six months.
Where does the electricity in Ireland come from?
Gross electricity generation in 2024 by energy source. Source: Eurostat (nrg_bal_peh).
Household price since 2023
Average price per kWh, all-in, for a household using 2,500–5,000 kWh a year. Source: Eurostat (nrg_pc_204).
A household in Ireland using 2,500–5,000 kWh a year paid 38.7 c/kWh on average, all-in, in H1 2026, 20% more than a year before (Eurostat).
Eurostat's figure for each half-year, with taxes, levies, network costs and VAT. Updated twice a year.
How the electricity price works in Ireland
One market for the whole island
Since 2007 Ireland and Northern Ireland have shared a wholesale electricity market. Its current design dates from October 2018 and covers day-ahead and intraday trading as well as balancing, run by SEMO, a joint venture of the two system operators, EirGrid and SONI. The rules come from the SEM Committee, in which the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) in Dublin and the Utility Regulator in Belfast sit together.
Retail prices in the Republic were deregulated more than a decade ago, and today every supplier sets its own tariffs. The CRU licenses suppliers, approves network charges and protects consumers, but it does not set a maximum price the way Ofgem does across the Irish Sea.
Standing charge, PSO levy and the unit rate
An Irish bill combines a price per kilowatt-hour with a daily standing charge, and both carry the cost of the networks run by ESB Networks and EirGrid alongside the supplier's own costs. Rural homes pay a higher standing charge than urban ones, because each rural connection needs more line to reach it. VAT is added to the total.
One item has its own name on Irish bills: the Public Service Obligation levy, a fixed monthly charge on every household account that tops up the income of renewable and other supported generators. The CRU recalculates it each year for twelve months from October. When wholesale prices are high, those generators need less support, and the levy can fall to zero.
Gas imports, wind and data centres
Gas plants set the wholesale price in most hours, and most of that gas comes from Britain through subsea pipelines from Scotland, with the Corrib field off County Mayo supplying a shrinking domestic share. On windy days the picture changes fast, but the grid operator limits how much non-synchronous power, such as wind, the system can take at any moment, so turbines are sometimes turned down.
Demand is unusual too. Data centres, clustered around Dublin, use about a fifth of the electricity metered in Ireland according to the Central Statistics Office, and their growth has put pressure on both generation and the grid.
Gas and wind, and no nuclear
Gas remained the largest source in 2024, with wind a strong second. Solar has grown quickly from a low base, while biomass, a little oil and the last coal burned at Moneypoint made up most of the rest. Moneypoint, on the Shannon estuary, stopped burning coal in 2025. Hydro is small: Ardnacrusha on the Shannon, opened in 1929, is still the largest hydro station, and Turlough Hill in Wicklow stores energy by pumping water to an upper reservoir.
Ireland has no nuclear power: the Electricity Regulation Act 1999 prohibits using nuclear fission to generate electricity for the grid. Offshore wind, already a heavyweight in Britain, has barely started off the Irish coast, so almost all wind power still comes from onshore farms.
Links to Britain, and one to France under construction
For now, every link between the island and the rest of Europe runs to Great Britain: the East-West Interconnector and Greenlink connect Ireland with Wales, and the Moyle cable connects Northern Ireland with Scotland. Because Britain left the EU's market coupling with Brexit, capacity on these cables is allocated separately from the continental day-ahead auction.
The Celtic Interconnector, a subsea cable from County Cork to Brittany, is being built and will give Ireland its first direct link to France and the EU's internal market. Set against France's nuclear fleet or the hydropower of Norway, Ireland's price rests on gas and wind, much like Britain's, but in a far smaller and more isolated system.
Ireland compared with its neighbours
In 2024, gas made 48%, wind made 37% and solar made 4% of the electricity generated in Ireland. Wind, solar, hydro, nuclear and bioenergy together made 46% of generation in Ireland.
Gross electricity generation in 2024 by energy source. Source: Eurostat (nrg_bal_peh). Pumped hydro is left out. United Kingdom: NESO, historic generation mix, without imports and pumped storage.
Voltly does not cover Ireland yet
Voltly shows hourly prices in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Germany, France, Netherlands and Belgium.
Voltly is for Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Germany, France, the Netherlands and Belgium.
Questions about the electricity price in Ireland
- What does an ordinary household in Ireland pay for electricity?
- A household in Ireland using 2,500–5,000 kWh a year paid 38.7 c/kWh per kWh on average, all-in, in H1 2026, according to Eurostat. The price varies with the network company and the contract.
- How much of the electricity in Ireland comes from gas?
- 48% of the electricity generated in Ireland came from gas in 2024 (Eurostat), the largest single source.
- How does the power mix in Ireland compare with the neighbours?
- In 2024: Ireland: gas 48%, wind 37%; United Kingdom: wind 35%, gas 32%; France: nuclear 67%, hydro 12%.
- Why does this page show no hourly prices for Ireland?
- Ireland's day-ahead prices are set in the all-island market run by SEMO, and that data may not be freely republished. Instead the page shows Eurostat's official household prices for Ireland, which include network charges, levies and taxes, and so say more about what homes actually pay than a wholesale price would.
- What is the PSO levy on an Irish electricity bill?
- The Public Service Obligation levy funds support for renewable and other generators that the State has contracted for reasons of security of supply or climate policy. Households pay it as a fixed amount each month, whatever they use. The CRU sets it every year from October, and it shrinks when wholesale prices are high.
- Do Ireland and Northern Ireland pay the same price for electricity?
- On the wholesale market, yes: both trade in the Single Electricity Market at the same prices. Household prices differ, though. Northern Ireland has its own regulator, suppliers, network charges and taxes, and bills are paid in sterling rather than euro, so the final price per kilowatt-hour is not the same on each side of the border.