Publications
What is in my Electricity Bill? An Explainer of Individual Residential Electricity Bill Elements in Ireland from 2020 to 2026.
This paper explains the structure of a representative annual residential electricity bill and discusses the main drivers of change over the past six years. Domestic electricity bills in Ireland comprise 15 core cost components that electricity suppliers seek to recover across their customer portfolios over the course of a year and over longer periods. Each component is described, together with an overview of how it has evolved in recent years. The paper is intended for interested readers seeking a better understanding of electricity bills rather than for subject-matter experts.
- Authors
Dr Paul Deane
- Year
- 2026
- Publication Name
- Zenodo
- Category
- Report
- Keywords
- Electricity, Ireland, Residential Sector, Electricity Prices
- Full Citation
Deane, P. (2026). What is in my Electricity Bill? An Explainer of Individual Residential Electricity Bill Elements in Ireland from 2020 to 2026. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21215641
- Link to Publication
- /en/media/research/energypolicyandmodellinggroup/IrelandResidentialElectricityBillExplainer.pdf
Abstract
For the representative household examined in this paper, the main drivers of the change in annual electricity costs between 2019 and 2025, measured in absolute euro terms, were:
• Wholesale Electricity Costs: +€270
• Demand System Services Charges: +€85
• Imperfection Charges: +€40
• Supplier Capacity Charges: +€30
Together, these components account for the largest increases in the archetype annual
residential electricity bill over the period examined.