Residential metered electricity consumption was 8,447 GWh in 2022, a 9% decrease compared with 2021 (See Table 2C).
Median residential metered electricity consumption was 3,177 kWh in 2022, a 12% decrease from the 3,594 kWh median residential consumption in 2021. Both the total and the median residential electricity consumption decreased in every county between 2021 and 2022 (See Tables 3B and 5B).
Total metered electricity consumption was 29,500 GWh in 2022, an increase of 3.5% compared with 2021 (See Table 1).
Large energy users accounted for 27% of metered electricity consumption in 2022 (See Table 1).
Consumption by large energy users increased by 20% between 2021 and 2022 and by 116% between 2015 and 2022 (See Table 1).
The Urban residential tariff group accounted for 18% and the Rural residential tariff group for 10% of total metered electricity consumption in 2022 (See Table 1).
Dublin postal districts had the highest proportion of residential consumption in 2022 at 19%, followed by Cork (12%), Dublin county (6%), Galway (6%) and Kildare (5%) (See Table 3B).
Around 13% of residential customers consumed less than 1,000 kilowatt hours in 2022 which was less than one-third of the median consumption of 3,177 kWh (See Table 7).
The residential DUoS groups include some small non-residential consumption such as newsagents and farms.
The allocation of customers to counties was mainly done by the CSO using the addresses provided. In some cases, these addresses contained placenames only and not the county name.
| Non-Residential | Urban Residential | Rural Residential | |
| 2022 | 21 | 5.4 | 3 |
| Median consumption | |
| Carlow | 3.292 |
| Cavan | 3.236 |
| Clare | 2.992 |
| Cork | 3.057 |
| Donegal | 2.639 |
| Dublin County | 3.268 |
| Dublin Postal Districts | 3.078 |
| Galway | 3.488 |
| Kerry | 3.01 |
| Kildare | 3.557 |
| Kilkenny | 3.378 |
| Laois | 3.295 |
| Leitrim | 2.516 |
| Limerick | 3.14 |
| Longford | 3.212 |
| Louth | 3.041 |
| Mayo | 2.912 |
| Meath | 3.571 |
| Monaghan | 3.206 |
| Offaly | 3.466 |
| Roscommon | 2.858 |
| Sligo | 3.017 |
| Tipperary | 3.382 |
| Waterford | 3.264 |
| Westmeath | 3.532 |
| Wexford | 3.36 |
| Wicklow | 3.385 |
| Not Coded | 2.114 |
| Consumption size class | |
| 0<50kWh | 90.007 |
| 50<100kWh | 12.956 |
| 100<500kWh | 75.609 |
| 500<1,000kWh | 103.479 |
| 1,000<2,500kWh | 534.087 |
| 2,500<5,000kWh | 838.863 |
| 5,000<7,500kWh | 334.041 |
| 7,500<10,000kWh | 104.752 |
| 10,000kWh + | 84.872 |
Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (12 June 2023) published Metered Electricity Consumption 2022.
Commenting on the release Niamh Shanahan, Statistician in the Environment and Climate Division, said: "Non-residential consumption was 71% of total metered electricity consumption in 2022, while Urban residential and Rural residential tariff groups were 18% and 10% respectively. The consumption by Urban Residential and Rural Residential tariff groups decreased by 10% and 9% respectively between 2021 and 2022, and non-residential consumption increased 9% over the same period. On a quarterly basis, Tables 2A and 2C show that the main seasonal variation was in the residential sector with 31% of consumption in 2022 in the first quarter compared with 21% in the third quarter. Dublin postal districts had the highest proportion of residential consumption in 2022 at 19%, followed by Cork (12%), Dublin county (6%), Galway (6%) and Kildare (5%). Counties with dwellings that use electricity as their main space heating fuel and the total number of meters present are underlying factors determining county residential demand.
Median residential consumption was 3,177 kWh in 2022, a decrease from the 3,594 kWh median in 2021. Tables 5A to 5E show the median residential electricity consumption by year, quarter, county, and Dublin postal district. Median residential electricity consumption decreased in every county compared with 2021. January to March had the highest median consumption. Leitrim (2,516 kWh), Donegal (2,639 kWh), and Roscommon (2,858 kWh) had the lowest median residential consumption in 2022 while Meath with 3,571 kWh had the highest figure. Tables 4A and 4B show that Dublin 15 at 14% and Dublin 2 at 12% had the highest proportion of non-residential electricity consumption in 2022 for the Dublin postal districts area. Dublin 15 (11%) and Dublin 24 (8%) were the postal districts with the highest proportions of residential electricity consumption among the Dublin postal districts.
Total metered electricity consumption was 29,500 GWh in 2022, which was an increase of 3.5% on 2021. Large energy users accounted for 27% of metered electricity consumed in 2022 - this category comprises a small number of customers such as the largest data centres and the highest electricity consumers in other business sectors such as IT and cement manufacturing. Consumption by large energy users increased by 20% between 2021 and 2022.
The number of non-residential electricity meters increased from 274,094 in 2015 to 293,170 in 2022 while the number of residential electricity meters increased by around 138,920 in the same period.
Electricity consumption can be used as an indirect indicator of vacant and holiday dwellings. Around 13% of residential customers consumed less than 1,000 kilowatt hours in 2022 which was well below the median of 3,177 kilowatt hours."