Compare Electricity Prices in Northern Ireland: The Five Suppliers Side by Side and How Switching Works Here

Search for the cheapest electricity in Northern Ireland and you will find a single ranked list. That list is wrong for a large share of the people reading it, because the cheapest supplier here is a different company depending on whether you pay by Direct Debit, top up a keypad, or pay on receipt of a bill.

Three different suppliers hold the top spot on those three payment routes today. So the question worth asking is who is cheapest for the way you pay.

I built this site and I run its generation tracker, and the 368 quote requests that have come through it since March are what sent me back to the tariff tables. Most of the people filling in that form are paying well above the usage every published comparison is built on.

This page ranks all five NI suppliers on each payment method at the standard comparison usage of 3,200 kWh, shows the arithmetic so you can redo it with your own units, and sets out how a switch actually works here. The rates themselves live on our companion page, electricity prices in Northern Ireland, which lists every published unit rate and standing charge. This page is about what to do with them.

Checked on 6 September 2026 against the Consumer Council electricity price comparison table (prices for 06/09/2026, including VAT at 5%), the Utility Regulator, and Power NI’s electricity supply licence.

The Five Suppliers, and Why One Ranking Cannot Serve Everyone

The Consumer Council confirms there are five household electricity suppliers in Northern Ireland: Budget Energy, Power NI, SSE Airtricity, Click Energy and Share Energy. That is the whole market. Great Britain has dozens of retail brands and a price cap; we have five companies, and only one of them, Power NI, has its tariff set through a regulated formula approved by the Utility Regulator.

Two of the five, Power NI and SSE Airtricity, charge no daily standing charge on 24-hour domestic tariffs. The other three do. That difference is why a headline pence-per-kWh comparison between suppliers is meaningless here, and why the winner changes with your payment method.

Every annual cost below is calculated the same way: units multiplied by the unit rate, plus the standing charge multiplied by 365 days, at 3,200 kWh.

Cheapest on Direct Debit

Rank	Supplier and tariff	Units, 3,200 kWh	Standing charge, 365 days	Annual cost
1	Budget Energy Bill Pay 29% Discount (new customers only)	£954.56	£58.18	£1,013
2	Power NI Monthly Direct Debit with online billing	£1,027.20	£0.00	£1,027
3	Share Energy Share 24 Credit	£1,022.72	£48.65	£1,071
4	SSE Airtricity 1 Year Home Electricity 15% (new only, £40 exit fee)	£1,109.44	£0.00	£1,109
5	Click Energy Bill Pay 24h	£1,241.86	£37.30	£1,279

Look at rows 2 and 3. Share Energy’s unit rate of 31.960p is 0.14p cheaper than Power NI’s 32.100p, and Share Energy’s bill is £44 dearer. The standing charge does all the work.

Two of the top four are closed to existing customers. If you already hold an account with the supplier, the honest Direct Debit ranking is Power NI at £1,027, Share Energy at £1,071, Budget Energy’s £100 Loyalty and 18% Discount at £1,161, SSE Airtricity’s SmartSaver Std 6% at £1,227, and Click Energy at £1,279.

Cheapest on a Keypad

Rank	Supplier and tariff	Units, 3,200 kWh	Standing charge, 365 days	Annual cost
1	Power NI Keypad	£1,065.28	£0.00	£1,065
2	Share Energy Share 24 Keypad	£1,022.72	£60.85	£1,084
3	Budget Energy Keypad Loyalty 20% Discount	£1,054.08	£39.86	£1,094
4	SSE Airtricity 1 Year Home Keypad 10.5% (new only)	£1,168.32	£0.00	£1,168
5	Click Energy Keypad 24h	£1,241.86	£46.70	£1,289

The same reversal appears again. Share Energy has the cheapest keypad unit rate in Northern Ireland and the second cheapest keypad bill.

Keypad also costs less than people assume. The cheapest keypad tariff is £1,065, against £1,027 for the cheapest Direct Debit tariff open to existing customers. That is £38 a year for paying as you go, and Power NI’s keypad still comes in below every bill pay tariff SSE Airtricity, Click Energy and Budget Energy publish to existing customers.

Cheapest on Pay on Receipt of Bill

Rank	Supplier and tariff	Units, 3,200 kWh	Standing charge, 365 days	Annual cost
1	Share Energy Share 24 Credit	£1,022.72	£48.65	£1,071
2	Power NI Standard	£1,092.80	£0.00	£1,093
3	SSE Airtricity 1 Year Home Electricity 9% (new only, £40 exit fee)	£1,187.84	£0.00	£1,188
4	Click Energy Bill Pay 24h	£1,241.86	£37.30	£1,279
5	Budget Energy Bill Pay Standard 24hr	£1,344.32	£58.18	£1,403

Share Energy charges the identical 31.960p whether you pay by Direct Debit or on receipt of a bill. Nobody else in the market does that. So for a household that will not or cannot set up a Direct Debit, Share Energy is the cheapest company in Northern Ireland, and it does not appear at the top of any of the other two tables.

Three payment methods, three different winners: Budget Energy, Power NI and Share Energy. That is the case against one ranked list.

The Power NI Discount Cap That Changes Its Real Position

Here is something the tables do not make obvious, and it is written in the Consumer Council’s own note under the Power NI section: Power NI’s Direct Debit and online billing discounts “apply only up to £250 per quarter (£1,000 per year) - usage beyond this is charged at the standard rate”. The keypad discount of 2.5% is flat and is not affected by that threshold.

That has a direct effect on the £1,027 figure. Work it through.

Power NI’s standard rate is 34.150p. At 3,200 kWh that is £1,092.80 of standard-rate spend. The 6% Monthly Direct Debit discount would save £65.60 if it applied to everything, giving the £1,027 in the table. It does not apply to everything. £1,000 of standard-rate spend is 2,928 kWh, so the discount runs out at that point and the last 272 kWh are billed at 34.150p.

Step	Calculation	Amount
First 2,928 kWh at the discounted 32.100p	2,928 × 32.100p	£939.89
Remaining 272 kWh at the standard 34.150p	272 × 34.150p	£92.89
Annual cost with the cap applied		£1,033

The Consumer Council states the same limit a second way in the tariff notes: “Maximum of £60 savings per year”. £1,092.80 minus £60 is £1,032.80. Both routes land on £1,033, so the realistic Power NI Direct Debit figure at 3,200 kWh is £1,033 rather than £1,027.

Six pounds is not the point. The point is what the cap does at higher usage, because the keypad discount has no cap. Set the two Power NI tariffs against each other and they cross over:

• Monthly Direct Debit with online billing, above 2,928 kWh: annual cost = units × 34.150p, minus £60
• Keypad: annual cost = units × 33.290p, with no cap

Those are equal at 6,977 kWh, which is roughly £193 a month at the standard rate. Above about 7,000 kWh a year, Power NI’s keypad tariff is cheaper than its own monthly Direct Debit tariff. Every comparison table in the market shows the opposite, because every comparison table is built at 3,200 kWh.

Of those 368 quote requests, 246 reported spending £100 to £250 a month on electricity and 51 reported more than £250. A household at £250 a month is well clear of 3,200 kWh, and the published ranking is not describing their bill.

What the Consumer Council Comparison Tool Does and Does Not Show

The Consumer Council tool is free, independent and covers all five suppliers. It walks through five steps: current supplier, payment method, tariff, billing method, new payment method. Use it. Two things it will not do for you.

It excludes welcome credit and add-on offers. The Consumer Council says so plainly: “our comparisons do not factor in the various supplier incentives such as welcome credit”. On today’s tariffs that changes the order of the list in year one.

Tariff	Table annual cost	Welcome credit	Year one cost
Budget Energy Keypad Loyalty 20% Discount	£1,094	none	£1,094
Budget Energy £80 Discount and Keypad 20% Discount	£1,094	£80	£1,014
Budget Energy £100 Loyalty and 18% Discount	£1,161	£100	£1,061

The first two rows are the same unit rate and the same standing charge, and the table shows them as identical at £1,094. One of them hands you £80. The third row looks £67 dearer than the first and is £33 cheaper in year one. These are all Budget Energy tariffs.

The credit is a one-year effect, so year two reverts to the table figures. Count it, then check your tariff again next autumn.

It does not handle Economy 7 at all. The tool says so: “Unfortunately the price comparison tool does not work with Economy 7 at the moment.” With a night-rate meter you need the separate Economy 7 comparison table instead. That is a real gap in a market where storage heating is common.

How to Switch Electricity Supplier in Northern Ireland, Step by Step

1. Get your bill out and find four things. Your annual units, your unit rate, your standing charge, and your meter reference. Power NI asks for an MPRN if you are on a bill, or a KPRN if you are on a keypad. Both are printed on your bill or top-up receipt.
2. Work out your own annual cost on your current tariff. Units times unit rate, plus standing charge times 365. Not the 3,200 kWh figure unless that is genuinely close to your usage.
3. Compare on that number, not on pence per kWh. Run the Consumer Council tool, then check the answer against the published table yourself, adding any welcome credit the tool leaves out.
4. Apply to the new supplier only. The Utility Regulator’s rule is that your new supplier tells your old supplier. Power NI states the same on its switching page. You do not contact the company you are leaving.
5. Give a meter reading on the day you apply, and bank details if you are going onto Direct Debit.
6. The cooling-off period runs for up to 10 working days. That is the Utility Regulator’s figure, and Power NI describes the same window as 14 days. You can cancel inside it for any reason.
7. The switch completes within 15 working days after the cooling-off period ends. So around five weeks end to end. Power NI puts its own process at about four weeks. Your supply is never interrupted and no engineer visits, because nothing physical changes.
8. On a keypad, expect one extra step. Your new supplier will ring to move any credit sitting on the meter across, and you type a code into the keypad. Power NI requires at least £2 of credit on the meter for that to work, and does it after the cooling-off period has ended.
9. Check the final bill. Your old supplier must issue it within 6 weeks of the switch, and must refund any credit left in your account or on your prepayment meter within the same 6 weeks.

Exit Fees: Which NI Tariffs Actually Have One

The Utility Regulator’s position is that “there is no charge for switching supplier but some contracts have a cancellation charge”. In practice almost nothing in the NI domestic market carries one.

Supplier	Exit fee on domestic tariffs
Power NI	None on any tariff, and no fixed-term contract on any tariff
Budget Energy	None on any tariff, including the fixed-term 29% and £80 deals
Click Energy	None, no contract
Share Energy	None, no fixed term
SSE Airtricity	£40 early exit fee on the fixed-term bill pay deals; the no-contract SmartSaver tariffs have none

So the exit fee question here comes down to one supplier and one type of deal. On an SSE Airtricity fixed-term bill pay tariff, check the £40 against the saving before you move.

Who Cannot Switch, or Cannot Switch Easily

If you owe your current supplier money. Power NI’s electricity supply licence, Condition 27, says the new supply starts within 15 working days unless “the Registered Supplier for the premises objects to the Supplier Transfer”. An objection is a formal step your current supplier is entitled to take, and it stops the clock. Clear or agree the balance first, then apply.

If you will not pay a security deposit. Condition 26 of the same licence lets a supplier decline to supply where it “requires the Domestic Customer to pay a reasonable Security Deposit and he does not do so”. Deposits are usually asked for on a credit meter with no Direct Debit. Ask before you apply, because a deposit can wipe out the first year’s saving.

If you are on Economy 7. You can switch, but the Consumer Council’s comparison tool cannot price your tariff, so you have to work through the Economy 7 table by hand.

If your keypad has nothing on it. The credit transfer needs at least £2 on the meter in Power NI’s case. Top up before the transfer call.

If you rent and the account is not in your name. The account holder switches, not the occupier.

Does Switching Beat Solar?

Worth putting a number on, because the two get sold as alternatives and they are not.

The biggest switch available in Northern Ireland today is from the dearest tariff to the cheapest one open to everybody: Budget Energy’s Bill Pay Standard 24hr at £1,403, down to Power NI’s Monthly Direct Debit with online billing at £1,033 once the discount cap is applied. That is £370 a year, and it is a one-time gain. You cannot do it twice.

Now the solar side, measured rather than modelled. I run a generation tracker across seven NI towns. From 24 January to 5 September 2026, 225 measured days, a 4kW system in Belfast generated 2,227 kWh. At the tracker’s stated tariff assumption of 33.5p per kWh, all of that generation is worth £746.

You will not use all of it in the house. At a realistic 50% self-consumption:

Line	Calculation	Amount
Self-consumed generation, 225 days	1,113 kWh × 33.5p	£373
Exported, at NI voluntary export rates of 5p to 8p	1,114 kWh × 5p to 8p	£56 to £89
Total value, 225 days		£429 to £462

Solar returned roughly as much in 225 days as the single best switch in the market returns in a year, and it will do it again next year. Switching is free and takes five weeks. A 4kW system costs £6,000 to £8,000, covered in solar panel costs in Northern Ireland.

The interaction is the bit people miss. Switching to a cheaper unit rate lowers what every solar unit saves you, and moving to a dearer supplier raises it. Both are levers on the same number, and doing the free one first costs you nothing on the other. Our guide on solar versus switching energy supplier works through the order. Export rates in NI are voluntary supplier payments rather than the Smart Export Guarantee, and the current ones are in solar export payments in NI.

Quotes for an identical 4kW specification routinely differ by more than £1,000 between NI installers, which is a bigger swing than three years of switching supplier. Compare quotes from MCS-certified installers across NI, free, no obligation.

What To Do This Week

1. Find your unit rate, standing charge and annual units on your latest bill.
2. Work out your annual cost, then find your payment method’s table above.
3. If you are on a default standard rate, you are the person with the most to gain. Budget Energy’s standard bill pay tariff is £390 a year above the cheapest deal in the market.
4. Check whether the deal you are eyeing is open to existing customers. Several of the cheapest are not.
5. If you use well over 3,200 kWh, redo the Power NI comparison with the £1,000 discount cap in it before you assume Direct Debit wins.
6. Read the detail behind the summer increases in our note on the July and August 2026 NI electricity price rises, because no NI supplier cut prices across 2025 or 2026.

Sources

All facts checked on 6 September 2026.

• Consumer Council for Northern Ireland, electricity price comparison table, prices for 06/09/2026 including VAT at 5%, annual cost at 3,200 kWh
• Consumer Council for Northern Ireland, switching electricity or gas supplier
• Consumer Council for Northern Ireland, electricity price comparison tool
• Utility Regulator, switching energy suppliers
• Power NI electricity supply licence, Conditions 26 and 27
• Power NI, switch electricity supplier
• Power NI, unit rates from 1 July 2026

Generation figures are from this site’s own tracker, measured daily across seven NI towns since 24 January 2026. Quote request figures are from 368 requests submitted through this site since January 2026.