Your discount does not touch your standing charge.
Every electricity discount in the Irish market applies to the unit rate only. The standing charge, which runs from about €240 to €345 a year on a standard plan and considerably more on some meter types, is paid in full regardless of the percentage on the front of the offer.
What it is
A daily fee you pay before you use anything.
The standing charge covers your connection to the network rather than the electricity itself. It accrues every day whether the house is full or empty, and it is quoted in cents per day, which is part of why it slips past people. Sixty-eight cents a day sounds like nothing. It is €250 a year.
The spread
About €100 a year between the cheapest and dearest.
Urban standing charges on standard 24-hour plans, as published. Rural rates are higher at every supplier, by roughly €30 to €76 a year on these standard plans, and by more on some meter types.
| Supplier | Cents/day | Per year |
|---|---|---|
| Yuno Energy | 60.06 | €219.22 |
| Bord Gáis Energy | 67.06 | €244.77 |
| WaterPower | 67.58 | €246.67 |
| Electric Ireland | 68.70 | €250.76 |
| SSE Airtricity | 72.29 | €263.86 |
| Energia | 72.61 | €265.03 |
| Community Power | 75.21 | €274.52 |
| Pinergy | 77.66 | €283.46 |
| Ecopower | 82.80 | €302.22 |
| Flogas | 83.75 | €305.69 |
| PrepayPower | 93.89 | €342.70 |
The part that surprises people
Your plan changes it, with the same supplier and the same meter.
SSE Airtricity charges 72.29 cent a day on its ordinary smart plans, 97.59 on Smart Weekends and 97.87 on Smart EV Max. Same supplier, same smart meter, about €92 a year between the cheapest and dearest standing charge before a single unit is used.
Meter type moves it too. A nightsaver meter costs more to stand still than a standard one. Flogas charges 83.75 cent a day on its standard urban plan and 107.81 on its nightsaver equivalent, a difference of about €88 a year. Electric Ireland shows a similar gap, roughly €78.
a year on PrepayPower’s rural nightsaver standing charge (147.94 cent a day) — before a single unit is used.
Why the discount is misleading
Thirty per cent off is not thirty per cent off your bill.
Take an average household using 4,200 kWh a year. On a plan with a 30 per cent unit rate discount and a €265 standing charge, the standing charge is roughly a fifth of the total and the discount does nothing to it.
This matters most for low-usage households. The less electricity you use, the larger a share of your bill is the standing charge, and the less a headline percentage is worth to you. A small household can easily be better off on a lower standing charge with a smaller discount.
What to do with it
Compare annual totals, not percentages.
Multiply the standing charge in cents per day by 365, divide by 100, and add your usage times the discounted unit rate. That total is the only number worth comparing. Two plans advertising very different percentages can land within a few euro of each other once the standing charge is in.
Check whether the rate you are quoted is urban or rural, since the difference is real money and the quote you see first is usually the urban one.
We do that arithmetic for every plan on the market on our electricity prices and gas prices pages, with an urban and rural toggle, so you can compare annual totals rather than percentages.
Figures are as published by each supplier and were last checked in July 2026, converted at 365 days. Standing charges change less often than unit rates but they do change, so confirm current terms before switching.