{"id":1065754,"date":"2026-07-03T11:08:24","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T11:08:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1065754\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T11:08:24","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T11:08:24","slug":"electricity-price-increase-announced-for-131000-northern-ireland-households-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1065754\/","title":{"rendered":"Electricity price increase announced for 131,000 Northern Ireland households \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The north\u2019s second largest <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishnews.com\/tags\/electricity\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishnews.com\/tags\/electricity\/\">electricity<\/a> supplier <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishnews.com\/tags\/sse-airtricity\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishnews.com\/tags\/sse-airtricity\/\">SSE Airtricity<\/a> has announced a 6.2% price increase for domestic customers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The company has blamed sustained market volatility and higher wholesale costs for the hike in its standard variable household electricity rates from August 1.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">It\u2019s expected to add around \u00a371.57 to the average annual household bill.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The latest figures from the Utility Regulator show SSE Airtricity had 144,429 customers in the first quarter of 2026, including 131,194 households.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"c-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishnews.com\/news\/business\/co-fermanagh-egg-group-now-among-northern-irelands-most-profitable-businesses-TP3SIPNHOZHODGDM5X23ZPGHRM\/\" aria-hidden=\"true\" tabindex=\"-1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"Co Fermanagh egg group now among Northern Ireland&#x2019;s most profitable businesses\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/P4CQOEPYO5K4DLLCEKRLNNFOEM.jpg\"  width=\"800\" height=\"450\"\/><\/a><a class=\"c-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishnews.com\/news\/business\/electricity-price-increase-announced-for-131000-northern-ireland-households-6PRZS6CHZFGIFEUWX5DEOS2MGE\/\" aria-hidden=\"true\" tabindex=\"-1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"Electricity price increase announced for 131,000 Northern Ireland households\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/LUSYQDYZLBKPZEGMM2F62YJPG4.jpg\"  width=\"800\" height=\"450\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Stephen Gallagher, managing director of SSE Airtricity, said: \u201cWe understand this is unwelcome news. Increasing our prices is never a decision we take lightly. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"Scottish energy giant SSE is the parent group of SSE Airtricity. \" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/EUCNFWDZFFODZLEIFXNZAJ2ATY.jpg\"  width=\"800\" height=\"533\"\/>SSE Airtricity supply around 131,000 households in the north <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cThis is a result of sustained higher wholesale market costs that are outside of our control. We continue to do everything we can for our customers to limit the impact of ongoing volatility in the energy market. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cWe are here to help and would urge any customers experiencing difficulty to contact us in confidence and we will work with them to find a solution together. We have payment plans, offers and tariffs in place to support customers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The move by SSE follows <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishnews.com\/news\/business\/power-ni-and-firmus-announce-new-price-hikes-in-response-to-middle-east-crisis-2Q6RCLZ2MZCUXCJ4TB3B2D63JI\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishnews.com\/news\/business\/power-ni-and-firmus-announce-new-price-hikes-in-response-to-middle-east-crisis-2Q6RCLZ2MZCUXCJ4TB3B2D63JI\/\">a 6.2% price increase by the north\u2019s largest electricity supplier Power NI on Wednesday (July 1)<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Power NI supply around 521,000 domestic properties in Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">A number of electricity suppliers have already announced price increases this year, including <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishnews.com\/news\/business\/northern-irelands-new-electricity-supplier-share-energy-to-hike-tariff-by-26-CZ5MXKI3RNBJ7FFKQCJX7SIR5Y\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishnews.com\/news\/business\/northern-irelands-new-electricity-supplier-share-energy-to-hike-tariff-by-26-CZ5MXKI3RNBJ7FFKQCJX7SIR5Y\/\">Share Energy\u2019s first increase since it launched in 2024<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Share Energy had just over 41,000 customers in the first quarter ahead of Click Energy (38,870).<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Click increased its tariff by 9.5% on April 1.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Budget Energy, which last increased its tariff in January, is the north\u2019s third largest supplier with 122,770 customers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The north\u2019s second largest electricity supplier SSE Airtricity has announced a 6.2% price increase for domestic customers. The&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1065755,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5011],"tags":[24557,6643,1144,133349,145709,16,15],"class_list":["post-1065754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-northern-ireland","tag-electric","tag-energy-prices","tag-northern-ireland","tag-power-ni","tag-sse-airtricity","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116855736140062836","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1065754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1065754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1065754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1065755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1065754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1065754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1065754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}