Last updated: September 2026
Pay-as-you-go electricity in Ireland is no longer just the keypad meter in the hall. In 2026 you can prepay through a supplier-fitted smart meter with an app (Pinergy, PrepayPower Smart Pay), through the ESB Networks smart meter you may already have (Bord Gáis Energy, SSE Airtricity, Electric Ireland Smarter Pay As You Go), or through the classic keypad. What has not changed is the price: prepay plans carry a daily service charge and a higher unit rate, and an average household typically pays €300-600 a year more than on the cheapest bill-pay deal. This guide covers who offers what, what it costs, the emergency and friendly credit rules, the CRU protections, and who prepay does and does not suit.
⚡ Quick Summary
🌿 Who offers it: PrepayPower and Pinergy (prepay specialists, own smart meters), Electric Ireland Smarter Pay As You Go, Bord Gáis Energy Smart Pay As You Go, SSE Airtricity Smart Pay As You Go. The last three run on the ESB Networks smart meter - no keypad.
🌿 What it costs (September 2026): unit rates around 37-38c/kWh plus a daily prepay service charge of roughly 38-45c on top of the normal standing charge. PrepayPower's own estimated annual bill is €2,106 for an average home; the cheapest bill-pay deals are around €1,600.
🌿 Emergency credit: at least €20 on every prepay meter by CRU rule, repaid from your next top-ups.
🌿 Friendly credit: no disconnection overnight (typically 4-5pm to 9-10am), all weekend, and on Christmas, New Year's Day and St Patrick's Day. Top up by the next working morning.
🌿 Debt through the meter: a supplier can take up to 15% of each top-up towards arrears, no more.
🌿 Suits: people who want weekly budgeting and no bill shocks. Does not suit: anyone dependent on medical equipment, anyone who might not manage to top up, and anyone chasing the lowest possible price.
🔌 The Three Kinds of Prepay Meter
🌿 Keypad ("classic") meters: the supplier fits its own meter with a keypad; you buy a 20-digit code at a Payzone shop, online or in the app and key it in. PrepayPower Classic Pay is the main one left; Electric Ireland's older keypad plan has closed to new customers in favour of its keypad-free version.
🌿 Supplier smart prepay meters: Pinergy and PrepayPower Smart Pay fit a smart meter that talks to an app - top up by card in the app, set auto top-up on payday or when the balance drops below a level you set, and see usage in 30-minute detail.
🌿 Smart Pay As You Go on the ESB Networks meter: Bord Gáis Energy, SSE Airtricity and Electric Ireland use the national smart meter that ESB Networks has been fitting since 2019. No extra hardware; credit is loaded remotely; disconnection and reconnection happen remotely too (reconnection can take up to about 75 minutes after a top-up). Electric Ireland supplies an in-home monitor and charges a 37.5c daily service charge.
A fourth category exists: financial hardship meters, fitted by ESB Networks at a supplier's request for customers in arrears. The CRU requires those customers to be put on the supplier's cheapest tariff and gives them extra protections - see below. All prepay set-ups need your MPRN.
💶 What Prepay Electricity Costs in 2026
Prepay pricing has three parts: the unit rate, the standing charge everyone pays, and a prepayment service charge that only prepay customers pay, deducted from credit every day.
🌿 Pinergy pay-as-you-go (September 2026): 34.49c/kWh before VAT (about 37.6c after), standing charge 71.25c a day, PSO 6.61c a day and a prepayment charge of 41c a day - roughly €1.30 a day, or €475 a year, in fixed charges before you use a unit. 12-month contract with a €110 welcome credit.
🌿 PrepayPower: prepayment service charge 45.04c a day (about €164 a year), 24-hour unit rate quoted around 37.6c/kWh by comparison sites, and the company's own estimated annual bill for an average home of €2,105.81 including VAT (as of May 2026). Rural (DG2) standing charges are about €105 a year higher than urban.
🌿 Electric Ireland Smarter Pay As You Go: 37.5c daily service charge on top of standard rates; the standard 24-hour unit rate rose to 38.04c on 1 July 2026.
🌿 Bill-pay comparison: first-year discounted bill-pay plans sit at about 32c/kWh with an urban standing charge of €251 and no service charge. On the Irish average of 4,200 kWh, that is roughly €1,600-1,650 against €2,000-2,100 on prepay.
That gap - €300-600 a year, depending on the plan and usage - is the prepay premium. Welcome credits shrink it in year one only.
🔹 Run the comparison for your own usage
Indicative estimates only. Defaults are typical September 2026 figures: a prepay plan at ~37.6c/kWh with a ~41c/day prepay service charge on top of the standing charge, versus a discounted first-year bill-pay plan at ~32c/kWh. Both add the PSO levy (~€24/yr) and rural standing charges are set ~€30-100/yr higher. Enter the exact figures from the tariff sheets you are comparing - rates changed several times in 2026.
🆘 Emergency Credit, Friendly Credit and Top-Ups
🌿 Emergency credit: since the CRU's 2025/26 customer protection decision, every electricity and gas prepay meter must offer at least €20 of emergency credit. PrepayPower and Electric Ireland activate it when the balance drops below about €3-5 (press 0 then # on a Classic Pay keypad); Bord Gáis loads it through your online account. It is an advance: Electric Ireland recovers €5 from each subsequent top-up, PrepayPower repays it from future top-ups, and it is not available again until repaid.
🌿 Friendly credit hours: the meter will not cut off during set hours even at €0 - typically weekdays from 4pm (5pm in summer) until 9-10am, from Friday afternoon to Monday morning, and on 25-26 December, 1 January and 17 March. The credit used is deducted from your next top-up, and you must top up by the next working morning or the meter disconnects then.
🌿 Top-ups: Payzone counters (card or 16-digit reference), supplier apps and websites, text (Electric Ireland: text the amount to 53314), and scheduled or automatic top-ups. Minimum top-up is usually €10.
🌿 Reconnection after running out: immediate on a keypad once a code is entered; up to about 1 hour 15 minutes on the ESB Networks smart meter.
🛡️ Your Rights: The CRU Rules for 2025/26
🌿 Debt recovery capped at 15%: where a supplier is collecting arrears through the meter, at most 15% of any single top-up can go to the debt (raised from 10% in September 2025). The rest buys electricity.
🌿 Cheapest tariff for hardship meters: anyone put on a financial hardship prepay meter must automatically be placed on the supplier's most economic tariff.
🌿 Winter disconnection moratorium: registered vulnerable customers cannot be disconnected for non-payment from 1 November to 31 March; all domestic customers from 8 December to 16 January. A prepay meter simply running out of credit is not counted as a disconnection - which is why the CRU says prepay is unsuitable for medically vulnerable customers.
🌿 Repayment plans must be offered over at least 18 months before a supplier moves to a hardship meter.
🌿 Switching away from prepay: you can switch to a bill-pay supplier at any time (outside a contract's early-exit fee); the new supplier arranges the meter change and the CRU code of practice requires the old supplier to bypass its budget controller on changeover day.
🌿 Doorstep sales: 30-day cooling-off period on any contract signed at the door, 14 days by phone or online.
The CRU reviews these measures every summer; the 2026/27 decision is due around the time this page was written - check cru.ie for the current version.
⚖️ Who Prepay Suits - and Who It Doesn't
🌿 Suits: households that want to pay weekly and see the balance; tenants in shared houses where nobody wants a bill in their name; people who have had arrears and want a hard stop on debt; anyone who would rather pay a known premium than face a €700 winter bill.
🌿 Doesn't suit: anyone who relies on electrically powered medical equipment (suppliers will not fit it, and the CRU says so); anyone with electric storage heating on a night-rate meter (Electric Ireland excludes those); anyone for whom topping up is hard - mobility, rural distance from a Payzone, irregular income; and anyone who could instead use direct debit and a smart meter app to get the same visibility at bill-pay prices.
For the last group the maths is blunt: the €300-600 prepay premium is close to the whole switching gap that a bill-pay customer saves by moving supplier once a year.
🏛️ Government Credits and Prepay Meters
The Budget 2025 electricity credit of €250 (two €125 payments, November 2024 and January 2025) was applied to prepay meters automatically on smart prepay, and as a special top-up code on keypads. Budget 2026 contained no electricity credit; instead the 9% VAT rate on gas and electricity was kept for five years and the Fuel Allowance rose €5 to €38 a week. Budget 2027 (6 October 2026) again had no electricity credit; it raised the Fuel Allowance by €5 to €43 a week and cut the carbon tax on gas and home heating oil. If a credit returns in a later Budget, it reaches prepay meters the same two ways.
⚠️ Common Mistakes to Avoid
🌿 Comparing unit rates only: the daily service charge is €140-165 a year that bill-pay customers never pay. Compare the estimated annual bill.
🌿 Letting the balance hit zero on a Friday afternoon: friendly credit gets you through the weekend, but Monday 9am is a hard stop and the used credit comes off your next top-up.
🌿 Small, frequent top-ups: €10 at a time means the fixed charges eat a large share of each one; on a typical plan about €9 of every week's spend is fixed charges before a unit is used.
🌿 Signing a 12-month prepay contract for the welcome credit: €110 back does not cover a €400 premium.
🌿 Assuming the landlord can force it: nothing in Irish regulation requires a tenant to accept a prepay plan; the account is in your name and you choose the supplier. If the meter is already a keypad, a new supplier can change it.
🌿 Staying on prepay after the arrears are cleared: once the debt is gone, a bill-pay switch is usually €30-50 a month cheaper.
❓ Frequently Asked Questions
🔹 Is pay-as-you-go electricity more expensive in Ireland?
Yes - typically €300-600 a year more than the cheapest bill-pay deal for an average home, because of the daily prepay service charge and less-discounted unit rates.
🔹 How much emergency credit do I get?
At least €20 on every prepay meter under the CRU's 2025/26 rules. It is repaid from later top-ups.
🔹 What are the friendly credit hours?
Usually weekdays 4-5pm to 9-10am, Friday afternoon to Monday morning, plus Christmas, New Year's Day and St Patrick's Day. Exact hours vary by supplier and by season - check yours.
🔹 Can I switch from prepay back to bill pay?
Yes. Any bill-pay supplier will take the switch; watch for an early-exit fee if you are inside a 12-month contract. A hardship meter fitted for arrears can be removed once the debt is cleared.
🔹 How much of my top-up can go to debt?
A maximum of 15% of each top-up, under CRU rules since September 2025.
🔹 Can I get night rate on a prepay meter?
Some smart prepay meters support time-of-use pricing; keypad meters generally do not, and Electric Ireland excludes night-storage customers from its smart pay-as-you-go plan. See our night rate guide.
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Climate Jargon Buster is an independent resource. Tariffs, charges and CRU rules quoted are correct as of September 2026 and change frequently - check the supplier's price sheet and cru.ie before choosing. We are not affiliated with any supplier or the CRU.