Community Power Review Ireland 2026
Community Power is the one supplier on this site you do not join to save money in year 1. You join it because of where the money goes: a community-owned company, grown out of the Templederry wind farm in Tipperary, that buys from small Irish wind and hydro generators and reinvests instead of paying dividends. Electricity only, one rate for everyone, €0 to leave. This review is the ledger — what that costs you, and what you get for it.
Community Power review: key takeaways
- ✓Ireland’s first community-owned electricity supplier: it grew out of the Templederry community wind farm (generating since 2012) and started supplying households in 2019.
- ✓One variable rate for every customer — no new-customer teaser, so year 1 and year 2 cost the same. We compute the 24-hour urban bill at about €1,684 a year at CRU typical usage (€1,730 rural), checked 28 August 2026.
- ✓That flat structure cuts both ways: no month-13 cliff, but a big-brand 12-month discount will usually undercut it in year 1.
- ✓No fixed term and no exit fee — €0 to leave, verified on their own site this week. You can trial it and walk away.
- ✓Electricity only. No gas, no dual fuel — if you heat with gas you keep a second supplier, and that is a feature of this choice, not a flaw in it.
- ✓Its green claim is the strongest kind — actual Irish community generation — yet its disclosed fuel mix is not "100% green", because it refuses to buy the certificates that make that badge cheap. We explain that paradox below.
- checkThe only community-owned supplier in the market — surplus is reinvested in Irish community renewable projects, not paid out to shareholders
- checkNo fixed term and €0 exit fees — you can leave any month without a penalty
- checkOne rate for everyone: no teaser discount, so there is no year-2 cliff waiting at month 13
- checkGreen claim rests on actual Irish community generation, not certificates bought abroad
- checkSmall-supplier service that customers rate well (about 4.7/5 on Trustpilot across a small review base)
- checkSupports micro- and mini-generation export credit if you have solar panels
- closeElectricity only — no gas, so no dual-fuel discount and a second supplier to manage if you heat with gas
- closeNo new-customer discount means year 1 usually costs more than a big-brand teaser deal
- closeNo app; billing is monthly by direct debit, and the bill carries an unusual DLAF line that takes explaining
- closeDisclosed fuel mix is not yet 100% renewable — the honest flip side of refusing to buy Guarantees of Origin
- closeSmall support team — phone and email, office hours, no 24/7 channels
How Community Power scored
Six categories, scored from published rates and Estimated Annual Bills, contract terms, billing behaviour and complaint records — never a supplier brochure.
Community Power at a glance
Plans and estimated annual bills
Estimated Annual Bills (EAB) at CRU typical usage — 4,200 kWh electricity, 11,000 kWh gas — including standing charges, PSO (electricity), carbon tax (gas) and 9% VAT. Urban (DG1) figures; rural (DG2) standing charges are higher. Year 1 is with the new-customer discount, year 2 is the standard rate the same plan lands on. A dash means we have not verified the figure this week — we never invent one.
| Plan | Fuel | Meter | Payment | Year-1 EAB (urban) | Year-2 EAB (urban) | Exit fee / fuel | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard variable (24-hour) | Electricity | 24-hour | Bill pay | €1,684 | €1,684 | None | 2026-08-28 |
| Standard variable (day & night) | Electricity | NightSaver | Bill pay | €1,544 | €1,544 | None | 2026-08-28 |
| Smart time-of-use | Electricity | Smart time-of-use | Bill pay | — | — | None | 2026-08-28 |
Who it’s for
For people who have already accepted a simple trade: pay roughly a teaser-deal’s saving extra in year 1, and in exchange your electricity money stays in Irish community energy. It suits values-led shoppers on any meter — 24-hour, day & night, or smart — who will happily keep gas with someone else, do not need an app, and like knowing there is no discount to chase and no fee to escape. If your only question is "what is cheapest this year", use Find your energy instead — this will not be the answer.
Get it if
- You want your electricity spend building Irish community-owned generation, and you are willing to pay more than a year-1 teaser deal for it
- You hate the discount-chase: one flat rate, nothing expiring at month 13, no reminder needed in month 11
- You want the freedom to leave — no fixed term and €0 exit fees, verified this week
- You heat with gas (or oil) and are happy running electricity and heating as two separate accounts
Skip it if
- Year-1 price is the whole decision — a big-brand discount or a challenger deal will beat €1,684, sometimes by a few hundred euro
- You want one supplier and one bill for electricity and gas — there is no gas and no dual fuel here
- You live in the app: there is no app, and billing is monthly by direct debit with paper or online bills
- You need prepay, or you want a badge that says "100% green" on this year’s fuel-mix disclosure — theirs does not, and they will tell you why
What they sell
Electricity (24-hour and day & night). The core product: one variable rate per meter type, monthly billing by direct debit. On a 24-hour urban meter that is 33.11c/kWh inc VAT plus a €274.52 annual standing charge (€320.27 rural). Their own published day & night estimate is €1,543.92 a year urban. No discounts, no cashback, no tiers.
Smart time-of-use. A three-band smart tariff: 21.24c at night (11pm–8am), 34.72c by day, and 39.84c in the 5–7pm peak, all inc VAT. Worth it if you can shift washing, charging and immersion out of that two-hour window; expensive if your household peaks when everyone else’s does. They also credit micro- and mini-generation export if you have panels.
What they do not sell. No gas, so no dual fuel and no dual discount. No prepay, no EV-specific plan, no app. If you heat with gas, the working pattern is Community Power for electricity plus a gas supplier you pick on price — a two-bill arrangement plenty of their customers run deliberately.
Our verdict
Every other supplier we review is a company you buy electricity from. Community Power is closer to a decision about where your electricity money should live. It began as the Templederry wind farm — two turbines in the Slieve Felim hills, twelve years in the making, generating since November 2012 — and the supply business (Templederry Renewable Energy Supply Ltd, trading since 2019) exists so that community-owned generators have a route to sell directly to households. Surplus is reinvested — community solar projects in Mayo, Galway and Tipperary have won support under the State’s RESS auctions — rather than distributed. When you pay the bill, that is what you are funding. Voting with your meter is not a metaphor here; it is the product.
Now the wallet side of the ledger, because sentiment does not pay a standing charge. At CRU typical usage we compute the 24-hour urban bill at about €1,684 a year — €1,730 rural — and their own day & night figure is €1,543.92. A big brand’s 12-month discount will beat that in year 1, often by €200 or more; the cheapest challenger deals in our Yuno Energy review beat it comfortably. The reply is structural: there is no discount here to expire. The €1,684 you pay in month 1 is the €1,684 you pay in month 25, while the teaser-deal customer who never re-switches drifts onto a standard rate that can cost more than Community Power ever did. Flat and honest versus cheap-then-dear is a genuine choice, not a trick question — but only if you know which shopper you are.
The green claim deserves its own verdict, because Community Power is playing a different game to every "100% green" badge in the market. Most suppliers get that badge by annual certificate matching — buying Guarantees of Origin, one per MWh, from renewable generators anywhere in Europe, to paper over whatever they actually bought. Community Power refuses to do that, buys real output from small Irish community and micro generators, and accepts the consequence: its disclosed fuel mix, the figure the CRU makes every supplier publish, is not yet 100% renewable and can read worse than an incumbent’s certificate-matched sheet. Nobody’s socket delivers local electrons — one grid serves everyone — so the honest question is never "is my kettle wind-powered" but "what did my money build". On that question, this is the strongest answer in the Irish market, and it is why the green score below is the highest we give. The overall 7.4 weighs that against a dearer year 1, electricity-only coverage and small-supplier plumbing: no app, monthly direct-debit billing, and a DLAF line on the bill you will want explained once.
We verified every euro figure on communitypower.ie on 28 August 2026 and computed the 24-hour EABs ourselves at CRU typical usage (4,200 kWh) with the standing charge, PSO levy and 9% VAT included — where a figure is not verified this week, we print a dash instead. Reputation notes come from public customer reviews, reported as such. matched.ie is not a CRU-accredited price-comparison site; see how we test.
Other Irish energy suppliers we review
| Supplier | Score | Fuels | PAYG | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yuno Energy | 7.9 | Electricity + Gas | No | App-comfortable switchers chasing the lowest year-1 bill |
| Energia | 7.3 | Electricity + Gas | No | Households that shop around every 12 months and want the deepest big-brand new-customer discount |
| Electric Ireland | 7.2 | Electricity + Gas | Yes | Never-switched homes that want a big, stable brand |
| SSE Airtricity | 7.1 | Electricity + Gas | No | Bill-pay switchers who want a large supplier that is not Electric Ireland or Bord Gáis |
| Bord Gáis Energy | 7.0 | Electricity + Gas | Yes | Gas-heated homes that want one bill |
| Flogas | 6.6 | Gas + Electricity | No | Existing Flogas gas households deciding whether to add electricity, go dual or leave |
| Prepay Power | 6.6 | Electricity + Gas | Yes | Households that need spend control or cannot pass a credit check |
| Pinergy | 6.5 | Electricity | Yes | Prepay households who want half-hourly usage data and will actually use it |
Not sure which fits? Find your energy supplier in 30 seconds. matched.ie is not a CRU-accredited price-comparison site — for the regulated comparators, see CRU.ie.
Community Power: frequently asked questions
Is Community Power really 100% renewable?+
Not on paper, and they say so themselves. Community Power buys output from small Irish community wind and hydro generators but refuses to buy Guarantees of Origin — the EU-wide certificates most suppliers use to badge themselves "100% green". So its CRU fuel-mix disclosure is not yet 100% renewable, while the money genuinely funds Irish community generation. They plan to seek Green Source Verification once their community-owned solar farms complete.
How much does Community Power cost per year?+
At CRU typical usage of 4,200 kWh we compute about €1,684 a year on an urban 24-hour meter and €1,730 rural — that is 33.11c/kWh inc VAT plus the standing charge (€274.52 urban, €320.27 rural) and the PSO levy. Their own published day & night estimate is €1,543.92 urban. All figures checked on communitypower.ie on 28 August 2026. There is no discount, so year 2 costs the same.
Does Community Power charge an exit fee?+
No. There is no fixed term and no exit fee — leaving costs €0, which we verified on their site this week. You give notice with your MPRN and a closing meter reading, pay the final bill for units used, and switch. That makes Community Power one of the lowest-risk suppliers in Ireland to try: if the flat rate or the small-supplier experience does not suit, you can leave any month without penalty.
Does Community Power supply gas?+
No — electricity only, so there is no dual-fuel option and no bundle discount. If you heat with gas you keep a separate gas supplier, chosen purely on price, alongside Community Power for electricity. Two direct debits instead of one is the real cost of that arrangement; the upside is you can shop each fuel on its own merits instead of taking whatever a bundle hides.
Who owns Community Power?+
Its customers’ communities, effectively. The supply licence is held by Templederry Renewable Energy Supply Ltd, a partnership of Irish community energy groups that grew out of the Templederry community wind farm in Co. Tipperary — two turbines generating since November 2012, Ireland’s first community-owned wind farm. It began supplying households in 2019 as Ireland’s first community-owned supplier, and surplus is reinvested in projects like community solar farms in Mayo, Galway and Tipperary.
What is it like dealing with a supplier this small?+
Different plumbing to a big brand: a small team on phone and email from Tipperary, monthly billing by direct debit, online or paper bills, and no app. Customers rate the experience well — around 4.7 out of 5 on Trustpilot, though across only a few dozen reviews — and praise the personal service. The trade-off is no 24/7 support channels and fewer self-service tools than an Electric Ireland or Energia.
What is the DLAF charge on a Community Power bill?+
DLAF is the Distribution Loss Adjustment Factor — an allowance for electricity lost as heat in the wires between generator and home. It is set by the network, not invented by Community Power, and every supplier carries the cost; most bury it in the unit rate, while Community Power shows its workings more visibly. It is not a penalty and you cannot avoid it by switching, so treat it as transparency rather than an extra fee.
Is Community Power the cheapest green electricity in Ireland?+
No, and it does not pretend to be. In year 1, big-brand green-badged discounts — see our SSE Airtricity review — and challenger deals will usually undercut its flat ~€1,684. Community Power competes on a different axis: no cliff after month 12, €0 exit fees, and a green claim built on Irish community generation rather than purchased certificates. Cheapest-green shoppers should compare year-2 costs too — flat rates age better than teasers.