NI Electricity Prices 2026: Power NI & Every Supplier Compared

Share Energy Hits Customers With 26% Price Rise

Share Energy has announced a 26% increase in its electricity tariff, effective 1 April 2026. The new rate rises to 31.96p per kWh, adding approximately £213 per year to a typical household bill.

This is Share Energy’s first price increase since entering the Northern Ireland market, and it affects around 22,000 customers. For a supplier that positioned itself as a competitive alternative, the size of the increase will come as a shock to many households who switched specifically to save money.

Share Energy is not alone. Every major electricity supplier in Northern Ireland has now raised prices in the past six months, with increases ranging from 4% to 26%. Here is the full picture.

Every NI Supplier Price Rise in 2025-2026

Supplier	Increase	Effective Date	Impact
SSE Airtricity	+6.2%	1 August 2026	+~£76/year
Power NI	+6.2%	1 July 2026	+~£5/month, ~£64/year
Click Energy	+11%	1 July 2026	+~£100/year, second rise of 2026
Share Energy	+26%	1 April 2026	+£213/year, ~22,000 customers
Click Energy	+9.5%	1 April 2026	+£108/year, ~33,000 customers
Budget Energy	+4%	15 January 2026	Already in effect
Power NI	+4%	October 2025	Superseded by the July 2026 rise
SSE Airtricity	+4%	November 2025	Superseded by the August 2026 rise

The pattern is clear. No NI supplier has reduced prices during this period. Every single one has increased them, and the two largest have now done so twice inside twelve months. The only question has been by how much.

For a detailed breakdown of the summer 2026 round specifically, including what each rise costs a typical household, see our news piece on the July and August 2026 NI electricity price rises.

What NI Households Are Paying Right Now

Northern Ireland has a smaller electricity market than Great Britain, with fewer suppliers competing for customers. As of spring 2026, typical unit rates across the main NI suppliers look like this:

Supplier	Unit Rate (inc. VAT)	Standing Charge (inc. VAT)	Recent Change
Click Energy (from 1 Apr)	38.808p/kWh	10.219p/day	+9.5%
Share Energy (from 1 Apr)	31.96p/kWh	~10p/day	+26%
SSE Airtricity (from 1 Aug)	~29-31p/kWh	~10p/day	+6.2% (Aug 2026)
Power NI (from 1 Jul)	~28-31p/kWh	~11p/day	+6.2% (Jul 2026)
Budget Energy	~26-29p/kWh	~10p/day	+4% (Jan 2026)

Rates are approximate and depend on tariff type. Check your supplier’s current rate on your latest bill.

The gap between the cheapest and most expensive suppliers in NI is now significant. Click Energy’s rate of nearly 39p per kWh is roughly 40% higher than the cheapest available tariffs. If you are on Click Energy’s new tariff and have not compared alternatives recently, it is worth checking whether switching could save you money. The Consumer Council for Northern Ireland provides independent comparison tools.

But even the cheapest NI supplier charges more than 25p per kWh, and that figure has only gone in one direction over the past decade.

Share Energy vs Power NI and the rest of the market

Two suppliers people most often compare are Share Energy and Power NI, so it is worth drawing them out. After Share Energy’s 26% rise to 31.96p per kWh in April 2026, it is no longer the budget option it once looked like. Power NI, on its standard tariff at roughly 27-30p per kWh, is currently the cheaper of the two per unit, though standing charges and tariff type can change the total, so always compare the full annual cost for your own usage rather than the headline unit rate alone.

The broader point is that switching supplier in NI now saves less than it used to, because every supplier has raised prices and the gap between them has narrowed (outside of the outliers like Click Energy at the top). The Consumer Council for Northern Ireland runs an independent price-comparison tool that is the best place to check live rates before you move.

Power NI Price Increase 2026: What to Expect

Power NI is Northern Ireland’s largest electricity supplier, so any Power NI price change affects more households than any other.

Power NI increased its residential tariff by 6.2% on 1 July 2026. The rise was approved by the Utility Regulator and adds roughly £5 per month, which works out at about £64 a year for a credit-meter household on the average 3,200 kWh usage, and around £62 a year on a keypad meter. Power NI attributed the increase to sustained global gas prices together with higher network and market charges. That takes its standard tariff to roughly 28-31p per kWh.

This was the supplier’s second rise inside twelve months, following the 4% increase in October 2025. SSE Airtricity announced its own 6.2% rise from 1 August 2026, taking a typical annual bill to around £1,277.

Power NI’s prices are regulated by the Utility Regulator, so any further change has to be approved and announced before it takes effect, usually with several weeks’ notice. Always check the current rate on the Power NI website or the Consumer Council’s price-comparison tool before making a decision.

For solar panel owners, the Power NI rate matters twice over. The unit price sets how much each kWh of self-consumed solar electricity saves you (at 28-31p, every unit you generate and use is worth 28-31p off your bill), and Power NI’s export rate determines what you earn for the surplus you sell back. Note that the Smart Export Guarantee is Great Britain legislation and does not extend to Northern Ireland: NI suppliers pay for exported solar voluntarily, typically 5p to 8p per kWh. The higher grid prices climb, the more a fixed-cost solar system is worth, which is the core reason NI homeowners are looking at panels in 2026.

100% renewable electricity tariffs in Northern Ireland

A growing number of NI households want their electricity to be renewable as well as affordable. Several suppliers, including SSE Airtricity and Power NI, offer 100% renewable electricity tariffs, where your usage is matched with renewable generation backed by certificates of origin. These tariffs are sometimes priced at a small premium and sometimes in line with standard rates, so it is worth comparing.

One thing to keep clear: a 100% renewable tariff covers the electricity you buy. It is completely separate from solar export payments, which are what you earn for surplus electricity your own panels send back to the grid. You can be on a 100% renewable import tariff and receive export payments at the same time. If you have or are planning solar, our guide to solar export payments in NI explains how much you can earn for what you sell back.

Coming in 2027: a new levy line on NI bills

One change worth knowing about now, because it will appear on Northern Ireland electricity bills rather than in any headline about tariffs.

The Department for the Economy has set policy for the Renewable Electricity Price Guarantee (REPG), Northern Ireland’s version of the Contracts for Difference auctions run in Great Britain and the RESS scheme in the Republic. The first auction is due in early 2027, seeking between 750 and 1,250 GWh a year of renewable generation, with later rounds needing to procure considerably more to hit NI’s 2030 targets.

REPG is aimed squarely at large projects. Eligibility is expected to require a scheme above 5MW with planning permission, a grid connection and evidence of financial commitment, on 15-year contracts, covering onshore wind and solar farms including those co-located with battery storage. Nothing about it applies to a domestic installation: a typical home system is 3 to 4kW, so REPG operates around a thousand times above the scale of anything on a house roof. It is not a homeowner grant and should not be sold to you as one.

What does reach your bill is how it gets paid for. REPG will be funded by a fixed levy added to electricity bills, operating in two directions. When wholesale prices fall below the agreed contract level, generators receive a top-up and that cost sits with billpayers. When wholesale prices rise above it, generators pay the excess back and it is returned to consumers through their suppliers. So it is not simply another increase: it is a mechanism that smooths the extremes in both directions, and the argument made for it is that displacing gas from the price-setting margin lowers bills over time.

The honest position for a household is that the direction of that levy depends on wholesale gas prices nobody can forecast, and the detail (strike prices, the levy itself) has not been published yet. What it does confirm is that the composition of an NI electricity bill will keep changing. The portion of your electricity you generate on your own roof is the only part unaffected by any of it.

What This Means for Solar Panel Savings

Every time electricity prices go up, the financial case for solar panels gets stronger. Here is why.

A typical 4kW solar panel system in Northern Ireland generates around 3,400 kWh of electricity per year. Every unit you generate and use directly in your home is a unit you do not buy from the grid. The higher the grid price, the more each self-consumed unit saves you.

Savings Comparison at Different Electricity Rates

Electricity Rate	Annual Solar Savings (50% self-consumption)	Annual Solar Savings (70% with battery)
24p/kWh	£408	£571
28p/kWh	£476	£666
30p/kWh	£510	£714
32p/kWh (Share Energy)	£544	£762
39p/kWh (Click Energy)	£663	£928

Based on a 4kW system generating 3,400 kWh/year. Self-consumption of 50% means 1,700 kWh used directly; 70% means 2,380 kWh used with battery storage.

At Click Energy’s new rate of 39p per kWh, a 4kW solar system with battery storage could save you nearly £930 per year. Even at Share Energy’s new 32p rate, savings with a battery reach over £760 per year. That transforms the payback calculation.

Payback Period at 39p/kWh

System	Typical Cost	Annual Saving (39p, 50% self-use)	Payback
3kW (no battery)	£5,000-£6,500	£500	10-13 years
4kW (no battery)	£6,000-£8,000	£663	9-12 years
4kW + 5kWh battery	£9,000-£12,000	£928	10-13 years
6kW + 10kWh battery	£12,000-£16,000	£1,250	10-13 years

At lower electricity rates, payback periods typically sit around 10 to 14 years. At 39p per kWh, they compress noticeably, and the total lifetime savings over 25 years increase substantially.

The Real Cost of Solar Electricity

The effective cost of generating your own electricity with solar panels works out at approximately 6 to 9p per kWh over the 25-year lifespan of a typical system.

That is calculated simply: divide the total installation cost by the total lifetime generation.

• A £7,000 system generating 3,400 kWh per year over 25 years = 85,000 kWh total
• £7,000 / 85,000 kWh = 8.2p per kWh

Compare 8p per kWh to Click Energy’s 39p per kWh, and the difference is stark. You are paying less than a quarter of the grid rate for every unit of solar electricity you use.

And unlike grid electricity, your solar cost is fixed at the point of installation. There are no annual price increases, no supplier notifications, no tariff changes. The panels sit on your roof generating electricity at the same cost per unit for the next 25 years, regardless of what happens to wholesale gas prices.

Should You Switch Supplier or Go Solar?

The honest answer is both, if the numbers work for your household.

Switching supplier is a quick win. If you are paying 39p per kWh with Click Energy, moving to a supplier charging 27p would save you roughly £420 per year on a 3,500 kWh usage. That takes effect immediately and costs nothing.

Installing solar panels is a longer-term investment. The upfront cost is significant, but the payback is guaranteed as long as the sun rises. And unlike switching supplier, solar protects you against future price increases from any supplier.

The two strategies work well together. Switch to the cheapest available supplier to reduce your immediate costs, and install solar panels to lock in a portion of your electricity at 6-9p per kWh for the next 25 years. As grid prices continue to rise, the solar portion of your electricity becomes increasingly valuable.

What You Can Do Right Now

If these latest price increases have prompted you to think seriously about solar panels, here are the practical next steps:

1. Check your current electricity rate. Look at your latest bill and note the unit rate. This is the figure your solar savings will be calculated against.

2. Understand your usage. A typical NI household uses 3,000-4,500 kWh per year. Your annual usage determines the right system size.

3. Compare solar panel quotes. Prices vary significantly between installers. Quotes for the same system routinely differ by more than £1,000, so the third quote is often the one that saves you money.

4. Check grant eligibility. If your household income is under £23,000, the Affordable Warmth Scheme can fund insulation and heating that cut your usage before you generate a single unit. Our guide to home energy grants in NI covers every current scheme.

5. Factor in 0% VAT. Domestic solar panel installations in Northern Ireland are zero-rated for VAT until at least March 2027, reducing the upfront cost.

Rising electricity prices are not something you can control. But you can choose how exposed your household is to them. Solar panels give you that choice.