Power NI vs SSE Airtricity

Power NI and SSE Airtricity are the two names most Northern Ireland households weigh up when they switch electricity, and SSE Airtricity is also the gas supplier for Greater Belfast¹. SSE Airtricity is Northern Ireland's second largest electricity supplier, with Budget Energy third².

The two are not symmetrical businesses. Power NI's regulated supply base was recorded at 790,000 customers, all homes and 25% of businesses by sales³. SSE Airtricity's gas tariff change announced in August 2026 was reported as affecting around 204,000 domestic gas customers throughout Greater Belfast and the West². One figure is a regulated electricity supply base; the other is a gas customer count.

The practical difference for a household is what each supplier can do without permission. SSE Airtricity supplies Greater Belfast and must go through the regulator for tariff changes¹. Electricity is different: energy prices were not capped in Northern Ireland and suppliers have the flexibility to set their tariffs independently to reflect their costs of operating¹.

Market position: the largest and the second largest

Northern Ireland's electricity retail market is small and concentrated. There are five electricity companies in Northern Ireland: Budget Energy, Power NI, SSE Airtricity, Click Energy and Share Energy⁴. Power NI carries the regulated supply base of 790,000 customers, all homes and 25% of businesses by sales³. SSE Airtricity sits behind it as the second largest electricity supplier, with Budget Energy third².

The two also appear separately in older customer satisfaction work, which is worth reading carefully because the brands were scored as distinct entities. In Which?'s 2021 survey, Power NI was in second place in Northern Ireland, followed by SSE Airtricity (Gas) and Electric Ireland, which had been the top provider the previous year; Budget Energy and SSE Airtricity (Electricity) came joint fifth⁵. That split between SSE Airtricity's gas and electricity arms matters: a household can be a customer of one and not the other.

Both suppliers also carry public scheme obligations. SSE Airtricity Energy Services NI Ltd is the named scheme manager for Energy Plus Provincewide and for Housing Association Efficient Electric under the Northern Ireland Sustainable Energy Programme⁶. That is a delivery role funded through the scheme, not a tariff.

For a household, market position translates into a narrow practical choice. Power NI's scale comes with regulated supply responsibilities and a large domestic base. SSE Airtricity's position is built on a combination of electricity and Greater Belfast gas, which means a dual-fuel household in Belfast is dealing with one company for both fuels, while a household outside the gas network is choosing between two electricity suppliers only.

Electricity prices: unit rates and what drives them

Northern Ireland electricity is not price-capped in the way Great Britain's default tariff is. Energy prices were not capped in Northern Ireland and energy suppliers have the flexibility to set their tariffs independently to reflect their costs of operating¹. That single fact explains why the two suppliers' published rates move on their own timetables.

SSE Airtricity's published electricity range is built around discounts off its standard unit rate rather than a single headline price. The published unit rates run from 34.670p per kWh on the 15% discount tariff to 39.970p per kWh on the 2% discount tariff with a £60 welcome credit⁷. Economy 7 versions are published separately: day rates of 36.180p, 36.600p, 37.850p and 39.930p per kWh, with night rates of 18.470p and 19.890p per kWh and a standing charge of 10.850p per day⁸.

Power NI's published position is simpler: its standard tariff is listed as the standard rate, with no discount attached⁷. SSE Airtricity's Economy 7 rates carry a standing charge of 10.850p per day alongside the day and night unit rates⁸, so the comparison between a discounted fixed deal and a standard rate turns on consumption as well as the headline pence per kWh.

The wider context is that Northern Ireland received direct unit rate support in 2022 and 2023 rather than a cap. The Energy Price Guarantee gave Northern Ireland households up to 19.9p per kWh off electricity and 4.8p per kWh off gas from October to December 2022, up to 13.6p per kWh for electricity and 3.9p per kWh for gas from January to March 2023, and up to 3.8p per kWh for electricity and 2.6p per kWh for gas from April to June 2023¹. A separate official statistics document gives the Q1 2023 figure as up to 13.6p per kWh for electricity and 3.9p per kWh for gas⁹. The two documents disagree on the later quarters, and both figures are given here.

For independence, the picture is straightforward: neither supplier gives a household control over the wholesale cost of the electricity it buys. What a household controls is the tariff it chooses, the payment method it uses, and how much it consumes.

Gas supply: SSE Airtricity in Greater Belfast and the regulator's role

SSE Airtricity's gas business is the part of its operation that is most tightly regulated. SSE Airtricity supplies Greater Belfast and must go through the regulator for tariff changes¹. That is a formal approval step, not a notification, and it has worked in both directions: the company has previously held regulated gas tariffs at current levels until April 2015⁹, and has reduced regulated natural gas prices for home and small business customers on the Greater Belfast network by 10.2%¹⁰.

The Consumer Council publishes Greater Belfast gas tariff comparisons covering tariffs available in Northern Ireland, correct on the day of comparison¹⁰. A tariff change for SSE Airtricity in Greater Belfast is scheduled for 1 October 2026, and a separate change for the Gas to the West area is scheduled for the same date¹⁰.

The scale of the Greater Belfast change was set out in August 2026: SSE Airtricity announced an increase of 19.2% for gas customers, effective from 1 October 2026, affecting around 204,000 domestic gas customers throughout Greater Belfast and the West².

SSE Airtricity's gas tariffs are also published with payment method variants. The Home Energy Tariff is available on pay on receipt of bill, and on Direct Debit with either an e-bill or a postal bill¹¹. The published unit rate for the pay on receipt of bill version is 7.010p per unit after 2,000kWh, and the Pay As You Go version is 7.443p per unit for the first 2,000kWh and after 2,000kWh¹⁰.

The dependence here is structural. A Greater Belfast household on the gas network depends on a single regulated supplier for that fuel, and the price it pays is set through a regulatory process rather than by shopping around. Electricity offers a choice of five suppliers; gas in Greater Belfast does not offer the same breadth.

Payment methods: credit billing, keypad and prepayment

The two suppliers differ most visibly in how they let households pay, and the difference shows up in the discounts attached to each method.

SSE Airtricity publishes bill pay and fixed term contracts alongside keypad versions. Its 1 Year Home Electricity tariffs are listed as bill pay and fixed term⁷. Its keypad products carry their own terms: a 1 Year Home Keypad tariff with a 10.5% discount and a £30 welcome credit on a 24-hour meter, and a 1 Year Keypad tariff with a 10.5% discount plus £30 welcome credit on an Economy 7 meter⁷. The Smartsaver Standard Economy 7 tariff is listed as having no contract⁸.

Power NI's keypad product works differently: the published keypad reward gives free electricity from £1 to £4 for top-ups between £50 and £175 made online or via the app⁷. That is a reward on top-up behaviour rather than a discount off the unit rate.

Prepayment generally means paying for energy before use, topped up via token, key or smartcard, online or via an app¹². In Northern Ireland the keypad meter is the common form, and the practical rules around it are specific to the region.

Billing and keypad credit problems route to the supplier, not the network operator: where the issue is about an electricity bill or keypad credit, the customer contacts their electricity supplier¹³. NIE Networks owns the wires; it does not resolve billing disputes.

For a household, payment method is one of the few genuine levers. A keypad meter removes the risk of a large quarterly bill but adds the discipline of topping up, and the reward or discount attached to it varies by supplier and by meter type.

Switching between the two: discounts, credit and what changes

Switching between Power NI and SSE Airtricity is a switch of supplier, not of network. The wires, the meter and the physical supply stay the same; what changes is who bills the household and on what tariff.

SSE Airtricity's published switching offers are structured as discounts off its standard unit rates, sometimes with a credit attached. The published terms include up to 13% off standard electricity unit rates, up to 15% off standard electricity unit rates, up to 9% off standard electricity unit rates, up to 10% off standard electricity unit rates plus a £60 welcome credit, up to 2% off standard electricity unit rates plus a £60 welcome credit that must be redeemed within one year, and 1% off the standard unit rate on the Smartsaver Standard 24-hour tariff⁷. Economy 7 versions include up to 12% off standard rates, up to 9% off standard rates, and up to 4% off standard rates plus a £60 welcome credit⁸.

The published start dates on SSE Airtricity's fixed tariffs cluster around 1 August 2026, with one Economy 7 tariff showing a start date of 1 August 2024⁷. That is a reminder that published comparison tables carry tariffs of different vintages, and the date on the table is what makes a rate meaningful.

What changes when a household moves is the discount structure and the payment terms, not the physical supply. What does not change is the underlying dependence: the household still buys from a licensed supplier on a tariff that supplier sets, and in Northern Ireland that tariff is not capped.

Customer service, complaints and the Ombudsman

Complaints about either supplier follow the same escalation route. The Energy Ombudsman is an independent service, separate to Ofgem, for problems with an energy supplier, an energy broker, a network operator, or a heat network supplier¹⁴. It deals with consumer complaints about energy bills, mis-selling, problems with energy supply and problems with switching supplier¹⁵.

The threshold for escalation is time-based. Complaints can be registered if unresolved after 8 weeks, or 6 weeks for SSE customers, or if the customer is unhappy with the action taken¹⁶. That shorter window for SSE customers is a specific published term and is worth knowing before a complaint is raised.

The Ombudsman's own published data shows customer service complaints running at 3,666 in the first half of 2025 and 3,500 in the first half of 2026, a fall of 5%¹⁷. Billing complaints are the largest single category: they represent almost 60% of all domestic complaints received by the Energy Ombudsman¹⁸. The service is free to consumers and has provided free, independent support to consumers who have an unresolved energy complaint¹⁹.

To raise a dispute, the Ombudsman asks for the energy supplier's name, the name of the account holder, the account number and the date the complaint was first raised with the supplier²⁰. The supplier must be the correct one to raise the dispute against, the complainant must have already complained to the supplier, and there must be sufficient evidence including the date the complaint was raised²¹.

For independence, the complaints route is the one place a household has real leverage over a supplier it cannot otherwise influence on price. It is also the slowest: eight weeks, or six for SSE customers, before the Ombudsman will take the case.