Electric Ireland, the electricity and gas retailer owned by ESB Group, will hold prices for its residential customers at the current level for the rest of the year despite the “extraordinary volatility” in wholesale energy markets at the moment arising from the US war in the Gulf region.
Profits at the State-owned group rose in the first six months of the year, and it increased capital investment in its infrastructure as it worked towards reducing its carbon emissions.
The group said its pretax profit was €445.6 million for the first half of 2026, up from €351.6 million in the same period a year earlier.
Last year saw significant damage from Storm Éowyn push additional costs on to the networks’ businesses, while rising energy costs from the ongoing Middle East conflict that began earlier this year have led to a €22 million increase in profits in the generation trading business.
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Speaking to The Irish Times after publication of the group’s interim results, Paul Stapleton, executive director, group finance and commercial at ESB, said there has been “extraordinary volatility” in wholesale energy markets since the start of the year.
While it has not yet been as extreme as in the period after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, gas prices are up 160 per cent so far this year, he said. Electric Ireland increased prices for residential customers in May, following the spike in global wholesale energy and commodity prices that followed the initial US-Israeli bombing of Iran in March.
“Ireland is one of the countries most reliant on natural gas for power generation in Europe,” Stapleton said. “So we have a more significant impact here than in most European countries.
“But notwithstanding that, Electric Ireland, I suppose, applies an effective hedging strategy, and it has committed now that it will not be passing on any price increases to customers at least until the end of this year.”
Stapleton said that it will review its position in the new year.
ESB Group, which employs more than 10,000 people, also said it has spent almost €1.5 billion in capital investment for its energy infrastructure projects, a 16 per cent rise on 2025.
That includes more than €900 million in the electricity network infrastructure across the island, and almost €500 million in electricity generation, with the majority in new renewable energy projects in onshore, offshore and solar technologies.
A further €20 billion in investment is planned by 2030 to strengthen the electricity system to support growth in housing, the economy and technology developments, in line with the Government’s National Development Plan.
“We are currently carrying out the biggest ever investment in Ireland’s electricity infrastructure, which will support the delivery of more homes and economic progress across the country and to ultimately achieve our net zero carbon emissions targets,” said Paul Stapleton, ESB’s chief financial officer. “An investment of this nature and magnitude requires a solid financial footing, and these results underline ESB’s continued robust performance.”
Although the group said Electric Ireland’s hedging strategy mitigated the impact of higher prices for the initial months of the crisis, it was “necessary” to increase electricity and gas prices from July 2026.
Stapleton noted that ongoing volatility in global markets, saying it underlined the importance of reducing Ireland’s dependency on imported oil and gas.
