Though the domestic electricity market was opened to competition in 2007, it was only three years later that SSE Airtricity, part of the UK power giant Scottish and Southern Energy, launched its offering.
Initially it targeted credit customers before reaching out to keypad users in 2011. Later that year independently owned Budget Energy plus Electric Ireland, part of the Republic’s semi state power company ESB, entered the domestic market.
Despite the three new competitors undercutting incumbent supplier Power NI, the long established operator still services almost seven out of ten households.