Faculty of Engineering and Computing header
Faculty of Engineering and Computing
An overhead image of the DCU campus on a sunny day

Ireland’s First Data Altruism Organisation Launches Elec-Tariffs.ie

With Irish households facing some of the highest electricity prices in Europe, a new non-profit initiative is offering a smarter way to gain control over energy bills. Elec-Tariffs.ie, operated by the Insight Research Ireland Centre for Data Analytics at Dublin City University, has been officially registered by the CCPC as Ireland’s first Data Altruism Organisation.

Developed by data researchers Shuxiang Cai and Xianjuan Chen and led by Prof Alan Smeaton, Emeritus professor of Computing at DCU and a founding director of the Insight Research Ireland Centre, Elec-tariffs.ie is a not-for-profit initiative that allows consumers in Ireland to share energy tariff and usage data.

What is Elec-Tariffs.ie?

Unlike commercial comparison sites, Elec-Tariffs.ie operates on the principle of data altruism. This framework, established by the EU Data Governance Act (DGA), allows consumers to voluntarily share their energy usage data to find the best possible rates while contributing to a data commons.

By using the EU’s DGA framework, the site ensures your data isn’t sold for profit but is instead anonymised and used to provide unbiased market insights.

Alan Smeaton, Professor of Computing at DCU said: 

"There are a few other tariff comparison websites which take an individual’s electricity consumption data and compute what is the best tariff for that individual, but there are none that also use the consumption data for population benefit. Ours does that by allowing us to get insights into how tariffs compare against each other."

According to Alan, several thousand people have used Elec-Tariffs.ie as of February 2026, the cheapest annual bill averaged just under €1,072 while the most expensive averaged €2,007. He added: 

“That’s a difference of almost €1,000 a year for the same household, the same energy used, just by choosing the right or the wrong tariff. Elec-tariffs.ie lets you use your own data to determine the best tariff for your household usage from over 60 options on the market.”

Elec-Tariffs.ie empowers Irish households to lower their costs while contributing to a more transparent energy market.

For more information, or to contribute your data to Ireland’s first data altruism project, visit Elec-Tariffs.ie.