How to switch electricity supplier in Ireland

Switching electricity supplier in Ireland is one of the few pieces of household admin that reliably pays for itself. It is free, it is handled almost entirely by the supplier you are moving to, and the electricity itself does not change: the same ESB Networks wires, the same meter, the same fault line to ring if the power goes out. What changes is who bills you and at what rate — and because most Irish suppliers discount heavily for new customers, the gap between the tariff you drifted onto and the best available one is routinely worth a few hundred euro a year.

Before you start: three numbers

You need three things in front of you, and all of them are on a recent bill.

Your MPRN. The Meter Point Reference Number is an eleven-digit number that identifies your meter, not your account. It is printed on every electricity bill, usually near the top or in the supply details box. It stays with the property when you move, and it is the only piece of information the new supplier genuinely cannot proceed without. If you have lost every bill, your current supplier will read it out, or ESB Networks will confirm it for the account holder.

A recent meter reading. Take one on the day you apply, and photograph the meter face. The reading is used to close your old account and open the new one at the same point, so a photograph is your proof if the two suppliers ever disagree about where one bill ended and the next began. Smart meters send their own reads, but a photo costs you nothing.

Your annual consumption in kWh. Most bills show a twelve-month usage figure or a bar chart you can add up. This is the number that decides which plan is actually cheapest for you, and it varies enormously between households — a one-bedroom apartment might use 2,000 kWh a year while a house with an electric shower, a tumble dryer and a car charger can pass 7,000. If you cannot find it, our estimates default to 4,200 kWh, the CRU’s figure for a typical Irish household, but your own number will always rank the plans more accurately.

Compare on annual cost, not on the unit rate

The advertised unit rate is the headline, and on its own it is close to useless. An Irish electricity bill has three moving parts:

• the unit rate, charged per kWh you consume;
• the standing charge, a fixed annual amount you pay whether you use anything or not, which varies by well over €100 a year between suppliers;
• the PSO levy, a government-set charge that is identical on every plan and every supplier — currently about €19 a year including VAT.

A plan with a very low unit rate and a high standing charge beats a plan with the reverse only if you use a lot of electricity. For a light user the arithmetic flips. That is why every figure on our electricity comparison is a full annual estimate at your entered usage rather than a rate you have to do sums on, and why our standing charges guide is worth ten minutes if you are a low user.

The second trap is the discount period. Almost every Irish supplier advertises a percentage off for the first twelve contract months and then rolls you onto a standard rate that is frequently mid-table or worse. A plan that tops a first-year ranking can be an expensive place to sit in year two. We publish both numbers side by side — first-year cost and ongoing cost — on the cheapest electricity provider page precisely because those two rankings disagree.

What actually happens when you switch

You apply to the new supplier — online in about ten minutes, or by phone — giving them the MPRN, the meter reading, your address and bank details for direct debit. You do not contact your old supplier at all. The new one notifies them through the market messaging system that ESB Networks operates, and the changeover is scheduled.

You then get a cooling-off period, normally fourteen days, during which you can cancel the switch for any reason with no penalty. This is a statutory right on a distance or off-premises contract, and it is why nothing happens instantly.

After the cooling-off window closes, the switch is registered, typically two to three weeks from application to completion. There is no engineer visit, no work at the property, and no interruption to supply — the meter and the wires belong to ESB Networks and are untouched. Your old supplier sends a final bill based on the closing read, and the new supplier’s first bill starts from the same read.

Exit fees, contracts and the things that catch people

Exit fees. If you are inside a fixed-term contract, leaving early can attract a fee. Most Irish suppliers have moved away from them for standard variable plans, but genuinely fixed-price contracts often keep one. Ask your current supplier what, if anything, leaving today would cost. The answer is frequently nothing, and where there is a fee it is often smaller than a year’s saving.

Debt. You generally cannot switch supplier while carrying an arrears balance above a threshold on your current account. Clear it or agree a payment plan first.

Pay-as-you-go meters. If you are on a prepayment meter, the switching process is different and the choice of supplier is narrower. Our comparisons cover credit accounts only, so a PAYG household should go directly to the suppliers who serve that market.

Renting. If the account is in your name and you pay the bill, you can switch. If the account is in the landlord’s name, you cannot. Check your lease — some prohibit changing supplier, though the term is not always enforceable.

Direct debit and e-billing. A large slice of the advertised discount is usually conditional on paying by direct debit and taking bills by email. If you will not do both, price the plan without those discounts before you commit.

After you switch

Set a calendar reminder for month ten. That is the point to compare again, before the discount lapses and before any contract auto-renews. Switching is not a once-off piece of housekeeping in the Irish market; it is an annual one, and the households who treat it that way are the ones who never pay the standard rate.

Finally, if you have a smart meter or are offered one, read our smart meter tariffs guide before choosing a time-of-use plan. Those tariffs can be considerably cheaper or considerably dearer than a flat rate, and which one you get depends entirely on when you use electricity rather than on how much.