Electricity Prices in Northern Ireland (September 2026): Every Supplier's Unit Rate Compared

Two numbers decide your electricity bill in Northern Ireland: the pence per kWh printed next to your payment method, and the daily standing charge sitting underneath it. The supplier name on the letterhead does far less work than people assume. Two households with the same supplier can be £390 a year apart on identical usage.

I have read 368 quote requests through this site since March. 246 of them put their monthly electricity spend in the £100 to £250 band. The form asks for a spend band rather than a unit rate, and the unit rate is the figure every solar saving on this site is actually measured against.

So this page lists every domestic electricity unit rate published in Northern Ireland, by supplier and by payment method, with the standing charge and the annual cost on the standard comparison usage of 3,200 kWh.

Checked on 6 September 2026 against each supplier’s own published tariff page and the Consumer Council for Northern Ireland electricity price comparison table, which is dated 06/09/2026 at the foot of the table. All figures include VAT at 5%. Annual costs assume 3,200 kWh and 365 days.

Every NI Electricity Unit Rate, 6 September 2026

Northern Ireland has five household electricity suppliers: Power NI, SSE Airtricity, Budget Energy, Click Energy and Share Energy.

Power NI

Power NI is the largest supplier and the only regulated one. It charges no daily standing charge on 24-hour domestic tariffs.

Tariff	Payment method	Unit rate (p/kWh)	Standing charge (p/day)	Annual cost, 3,200 kWh
Monthly Direct Debit with online billing	Direct Debit, e-bill	32.100p	0.000p	£1,027
Quarterly Direct Debit with online billing	Direct Debit, e-bill	32.610p	0.000p	£1,044
Monthly Direct Debit	Direct Debit, postal bill	32.780p	0.000p	£1,049
Keypad	Prepayment	33.290p	0.000p	£1,065
Quarterly Direct Debit	Direct Debit, postal bill	33.290p	0.000p	£1,065
Standard with online billing	Direct Debit, e-bill	33.460p	0.000p	£1,071
Standard	Pay on receipt of bill	34.150p	0.000p	£1,093

Power NI’s keypad rate carries a 2.5% discount on every top-up, plus £1 to £4 of free electricity on top-ups of £50 to £175 made online or through the app.

SSE Airtricity

SSE Airtricity is the second-largest supplier. It also charges no standing charge on 24-hour tariffs. Most of its cheaper rates are one-year fixed deals restricted to new customers, with a £40 early exit fee.

Tariff	Payment method	Unit rate (p/kWh)	Standing charge (p/day)	Annual cost, 3,200 kWh
1 Year Home Electricity 15% discount	Direct Debit, e-bill	34.670p	0.000p	£1,109
1 Year Home Electricity 13% discount	Direct Debit, postal bill	35.490p	0.000p	£1,136
1 Year Home Keypad 10.5% plus £30 credit	Prepayment	36.510p	0.000p	£1,168
1 Year Home Electricity 10% discount	Direct Debit, e-bill	36.720p	0.000p	£1,175
1 Year Home Electricity 9% discount	Pay on receipt of bill	37.120p	0.000p	£1,188
SmartSaver Std 6% 24hr	Direct Debit, e-bill	38.350p	0.000p	£1,227
SmartSaver Std 4% 24hr	Direct Debit, postal bill	39.170p	0.000p	£1,253
Keypad Standard 24hr 2.5%	Prepayment	39.770p	0.000p	£1,273
SmartSaver Std 1% 24hr	Pay on receipt of e-bill	40.380p	0.000p	£1,292
SmartSaver Standard 24hr	Pay on receipt of bill	40.790p	0.000p	£1,305
Keypad Standard Rate 24hr	Prepayment	40.790p	0.000p	£1,305

Budget Energy

Budget Energy holds both ends of the NI market. Its discounted deal is the cheapest published rate in Northern Ireland, and its default standard rate is the dearest.

Tariff	Payment method	Unit rate (p/kWh)	Standing charge (p/day)	Annual cost, 3,200 kWh
Bill Pay 29% Discount	Direct Debit, postal or e-bill	29.830p	15.940p	£1,013
Billpay 25% Discount	Direct Debit, e-bill	31.510p	13.220p	£1,057
Keypad Loyalty 20% Discount	Prepayment	32.940p	10.920p	£1,094
£80 Discount and Keypad 20% Discount	Prepayment	32.940p	10.920p	£1,094
£100 Loyalty and 18% Discount	Direct Debit	34.450p	15.940p	£1,161
Keypad £60 Loyalty and 16% Discount	Prepayment	34.580p	19.970p	£1,179
Keypad Standard 24hr	Prepayment	41.175p	19.970p	£1,390
Bill Pay Standard 24hr	Any	42.010p	15.940p	£1,403

The gap between Budget’s own cheapest and dearest tariff is 12.18p per kWh, or £390 a year. Both are Budget Energy. The 29% deal is open to new customers only, so it is not a switch an existing Budget customer can make.

Click Energy

Click Energy has withdrawn all of its discounted tariffs. The Consumer Council records the reason as tensions in the Middle East pushing up wholesale gas prices, with around 30% of electricity generated from natural gas. Bill Pay and Keypad Round the Clock, Twilight and Economy 7 Saver have all gone.

Tariff	Payment method	Unit rate (p/kWh)	Standing charge (p/day)	Annual cost, 3,200 kWh
Bill Pay 24h	Direct Debit or pay on receipt	38.808p	10.219p	£1,279
Keypad 24h	Prepayment	38.808p	12.795p	£1,289

Click’s own tariff page shows this rate running from 1 April 2026 until further notice, and the Consumer Council table matches it today. What changed over the summer for Click customers was the removal of the discounts, not the standard rate.

Share Energy

Share Energy charges the same 31.960p on every payment method. The difference between its tariffs is the standing charge.

Share Energy announced a 12.6% increase on 9 September 2026, effective 1 October. The unit rate goes to 35.99p on every payment method and the standing charges do not change, so both annual costs rise by about £129.

Tariff	Payment method	Unit rate to 30 Sep	Unit rate from 1 Oct	Standing charge (p/day)	Annual cost, 3,200 kWh
Share 24 Credit	Direct Debit or pay on receipt	31.960p	35.99p	13.330p	£1,071, then £1,200
Share 24 Keypad	Prepayment	31.960p	35.99p	16.670p	£1,084, then £1,213

The full detail, including the Economy 7 and electric vehicle rates, is in our October 2026 energy price rises note.

The Cheapest and Dearest Rates in NI Right Now

Position	Tariff	Unit rate	Annual cost
Cheapest published	Budget Energy Bill Pay 29% Discount (new customers only)	29.830p	£1,013
Cheapest open to existing customers	Power NI Monthly Direct Debit with online billing	32.100p	£1,027
Cheapest keypad	Power NI Keypad	33.290p	£1,065
Dearest keypad	Budget Energy Keypad Standard 24hr	41.175p	£1,390
Dearest overall	Budget Energy Bill Pay Standard 24hr	42.010p	£1,403

The full spread across the NI market is £390 a year on the same 3,200 kWh. Nothing about the electricity changes.

Why the Cheapest Unit Rate Is Not the Cheapest Bill

Power NI and SSE Airtricity charge no daily standing charge on 24-hour domestic tariffs. Budget Energy, Click Energy and Share Energy all do, from 10.219p to 19.970p a day. That is £37 to £73 a year before you use a single unit.

So a headline unit rate from one group cannot be compared with a headline unit rate from the other. Share Energy against Power NI shows it clearly.

	Unit rate	Standing charge	Units, 3,200 kWh	Standing charge, 365 days	Total
Share Energy Share 24 Credit	31.960p	13.330p	£1,022.72	£48.65	£1,071
Power NI Monthly DD, online billing	32.100p	0.000p	£1,027.20	£0.00	£1,027

Share Energy’s unit rate is 0.14p cheaper. Power NI’s annual bill is £44 lower. The same reversal happens on keypad: Share is 1.33p per kWh cheaper than Power NI, and £19 a year dearer once the 16.670p daily charge is counted.

From 1 October this stops being a close call. Share Energy’s 35.99p takes the same Share 24 Credit bill to about £1,200, which is roughly £173 above Power NI rather than £44.

If you use less than 3,200 kWh a year the standing charge matters more, because the fixed part of the bill is spread over fewer units. If you use more, the unit rate dominates. This is why comparing your own annual units, not a headline rate, is the only reliable method. Our guide to comparing electricity prices in Northern Ireland walks through doing that with your own bill.

Keypad Versus Bill Pay in Northern Ireland

Keypad is not the penalty tariff it is often assumed to be in NI. Here is every keypad rate in the market on 6 September 2026, cheapest first. Share Energy’s keypad rate rises to 35.99p on 1 October, which moves it from second to fourth in this table.

Supplier	Tariff	Unit rate	Standing charge	Annual cost
Power NI	Keypad	33.290p	0.000p	£1,065
Share Energy	Share 24 Keypad	31.960p	16.670p	£1,084
Budget Energy	Keypad Loyalty 20% Discount	32.940p	10.920p	£1,094
SSE Airtricity	1 Year Home Keypad 10.5% plus £30 credit	36.510p	0.000p	£1,168
Budget Energy	Keypad £60 Loyalty and 16% Discount	34.580p	19.970p	£1,179
SSE Airtricity	Keypad Standard 24hr 2.5%	39.770p	0.000p	£1,273
Click Energy	Keypad 24h	38.808p	12.795p	£1,289
SSE Airtricity	Keypad Standard Rate 24hr	40.790p	0.000p	£1,305
Budget Energy	Keypad Standard 24hr	41.175p	19.970p	£1,390

The cheapest keypad tariff in Northern Ireland costs £1,065 a year. The cheapest bill pay tariff open to an existing customer costs £1,027. That is a gap of £38 a year, smaller than most people expect. Power NI’s keypad tariff also comes in below every bill pay tariff SSE Airtricity, Click Energy and Share Energy currently publish.

The real gap on keypad is between the cheapest and the dearest: £1,065 against £1,390, or £325 a year. Both are keypad meters in Northern Ireland.

Economy 7 Rates in Northern Ireland

Four suppliers publish Economy 7 tariffs. Night rates run from 15.560p to 20.300p per kWh, day rates from 32.040p to 42.912p. All Economy 7 tariffs carry a standing charge, including Power NI’s. Share Energy’s Economy 7 rates rise on 1 October, the day rate by 13.89% to roughly 36.49p and the night rate by 10.46% to roughly 17.19p.

Supplier	Tariff	Day rate	Night rate	Standing charge
Share Energy	Share Eco 7 (credit)	32.040p	15.560p	13.330p
Share Energy	Share Eco 7 Keypad	32.040p	15.560p	16.670p
SSE Airtricity	1 Year Home Electricity 13% discount	36.180p	18.470p	10.850p
Budget Energy	Keypad Promotional 1 Economy 7	37.030p	18.070p	24.700p
Power NI	Monthly Direct Debit with online billing	37.270p	17.820p	13.550p
Power NI	Keypad	38.610p	18.460p	14.050p
Power NI	Standard Rate	39.650p	18.950p	14.420p
Click Energy	Bill Pay Economy 7	39.771p	17.291p	10.219p
Click Energy	Keypad Economy 7	39.771p	17.291p	12.795p
Budget Energy	Keypad Economy 7	40.262p	19.641p	22.559p
SSE Airtricity	Smartsaver Standard E7	41.590p	20.300p	10.850p
Budget Energy	Bill Pay Economy 7	42.912p	18.138p	24.035p

Budget Energy’s Economy 7 standing charges of 22.559p and 24.035p a day are £82 and £88 a year. On Economy 7 the fixed charge is the line to read first.

The 2026 Rises, One Row Each

Supplier	Change	Effective	Cost to a typical household
Click Energy	+9.5%	1 April 2026	Standard rate set at 38.808p
Share Energy	+26%	1 April 2026	Standard rate set at 31.960p
Power NI	+6.2% on all residential unit rates	1 July 2026	About £5 a month, roughly £60 a year on 3,200 kWh
Click Energy	All discounted tariffs withdrawn	Summer 2026	Affected customers moved to the 38.808p standard rate
SSE Airtricity	+6.2% on unit rates and standing charges	1 August 2026	£71.57 a year, about £0.20 a day
Budget Energy	+9.5%	4 August 2026	About £122 a year
Share Energy	+12.6%	1 October 2026	About £129 a year

SSE Airtricity announced its rise on 3 July 2026 and put the typical annual cost at £1,277.07 on a 24hr SmartSaver Standard credit meter at 3,200 kWh, including the Direct Debit and eBill discount. Power NI cited sustained global gas prices alongside higher network and market charges, and said it had delayed the change as long as it could.

The detail on each of those, including what the Utility Regulator approved, is in our news piece on the October 2026 NI energy price rises. No Northern Ireland supplier has cut prices across 2025 and 2026.

100% Renewable Electricity Tariffs

Power NI’s Eco Energy is 100% renewable and costs the same as its standard bill pay tariff. Compare the Eco Energy and Bill Pay tables on Power NI’s own unit rates page and every figure is identical: 32.100p on monthly Direct Debit with online billing on both. It is available on bill pay and keypad, sourced from Northern Ireland generators and backed by Renewable Energy Guarantees of Origin certificates issued by Ofgem.

Click Energy runs a Green Tariff that existing customers can move onto by contacting the company, with electricity sourced from renewable generation.

One thing worth keeping straight. A renewable tariff covers the electricity you buy. It has nothing to do with what you earn for surplus solar you send back, which is a separate voluntary payment from your supplier. You can have both at once. Our guide to solar export payments in NI covers the current rates, which sit at 5p to 8p per kWh because the Smart Export Guarantee is Great Britain legislation and does not extend to Northern Ireland.

Coming in 2027: the REPG Levy

The Department for the Economy has set policy for the Renewable Electricity Price Guarantee, Northern Ireland’s version of the Contracts for Difference auctions run in Great Britain. The first auction is due in early 2027 and will seek 750 to 1,250 GWh a year of renewable generation.

Eligible projects need a minimum capacity of 5MW plus planning permission, a grid connection and financial backing, on contracts covering onshore wind, solar PV and battery combinations. A typical home system is 3 to 4kW, about a thousand times smaller, so nothing on a domestic roof can qualify. It is not a homeowner grant and should not be sold to you as one.

What reaches your bill is how it is paid for. REPG is funded through a mechanism applied via electricity suppliers that runs in two directions. When wholesale prices sit below the contract level, generators are topped up and billpayers cover it. When wholesale prices sit above it, generators repay the difference and it comes back to consumers. So it is not simply another price rise, and anyone describing it as one has read half of it.

Strike prices and the size of the levy have not been published. What the scheme confirms is that the composition of an NI electricity bill will keep being rewritten.

What Solar Does to This Number

Every unit of electricity your own panels generate and you use in the house is a unit you do not buy at any of the rates above. So the value of solar in Northern Ireland is set by your tariff, and it moved twice this summer without a single panel changing.

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. The best single day was 21 June at 24.8 kWh. At the tracker’s own assumed tariff of 33.5p per kWh, that generation is worth £746.

Here is the same 2,227 kWh at each end of the market, at a realistic 50% self-consumption (1,113 kWh used directly in the house rather than exported):

Tariff	Unit rate	Value of 1,113 kWh self-consumed
Budget Energy Bill Pay 29% Discount	29.830p	£332
Power NI Monthly DD, online billing	32.100p	£357
Power NI Standard	34.150p	£380
SSE Airtricity SmartSaver Standard 24hr	40.790p	£454
Budget Energy Bill Pay Standard 24hr	42.010p	£468

Same panels, same roof, same weather, £136 apart across 225 days. The dearer your tariff, the more the panels are worth to you, which is the opposite of how most people assume it works.

That is also the argument against treating switching and solar as alternatives. Switching lowers your rate today and lowers what solar saves you tomorrow. Solar fixes part of your cost for 25 years and is worth more the higher rates climb. Our guide on solar versus switching energy supplier sets out how the two interact.

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

What To Do With This Page

1. Find your unit rate and standing charge on your latest bill. Both numbers. A rate without its standing charge tells you nothing.
2. Check whether you are on a default standard rate. Budget Energy’s standard bill pay tariff at 42.010p is £390 a year above the cheapest deal in the market. Default rates are where the money leaks.
3. Compare on annual cost, not unit rate. Use your own units from the bill, not the 3,200 kWh comparison figure, unless that is close to your usage.
4. Do not wait for a grant to fit solar. No Northern Ireland scheme funds domestic solar. What every household gets is 0% VAT, in place until 31 March 2027. Our guide to solar panel grants in NI sets out exactly what does and does not exist.
5. Work out what solar is worth at your rate. Take your unit rate, multiply by roughly half your annual generation, and check it against solar panel costs in Northern Ireland and the payback period.

Sources

All rates checked on 6 September 2026.

• Consumer Council for Northern Ireland, electricity price comparison table, prices for 06/09/2026 including VAT at 5%
• Consumer Council for Northern Ireland, Economy 7 price comparison table, prices for 06/09/2026
• Power NI current unit rates and Power NI tariff announcement, July 2026
• SSE Airtricity price change announcement, 3 July 2026 and its published NI domestic credit tariff sheet
• Budget Energy tariffs
• Click Energy, Your Tariff
• Share Energy residential tariffs
• Power NI Eco Energy tariff

Generation figures are from this site’s own tracker, measured daily across seven NI towns since 24 January 2026.