The cheapest and most expensive electric utilities in 2025

What a kilowatt-hour costs depends more on which utility serves your address than on almost anything you can change at home. Among the large utilities, the most expensive charged households more than four times as much per kWh in 2025 as the cheapest.

These figures come from the Energy Information Administration's final 2025 survey: what each utility collected from its residential customers divided by the electricity it sold them. That is the average price households actually paid, fixed charges included.

The range

Of the 162 utilities with at least 100,000 residential customers, the median charged 15.0¢ per kWh. The cheapest charged 10.5¢; the most expensive, 45.8¢.

The cheapest

They are spread across the Northwest, the Midwest and Plains, and the South, and across every kind of owner: of the 20 cheapest, 7 are investor-owned, 6 are cooperatives, 5 are city utilities and 2 are public utility districts.

The most expensive

The expensive end is concentrated in California, Hawaii, New York and New England, and in one kind of owner: 18 of the 20 most expensive are investor-owned. Co-op, city utility or investor-owned compares the kinds of utility within the same state, where the gap is smaller but still there.

What this does not tell you

• It is an average, not your bill. What you pay per kWh depends on your tariff and how much you use. The fixed charge weighs most on a household that uses little, because it is spread over fewer kilowatt-hours.
• Prices move. Of the twelve most expensive, Central Maine Power raised its price 17% in 2025 and Central Hudson 10%, while Pacific Gas & Electric, Hawaiian Electric and Southern California Edison came down 3 to 5%. What utilities charged for electricity in 2025 lists the largest increases.
• Your tariff matters too. Most utilities offer more than one residential rate, and the gap between them can be larger than the gap between neighboring utilities. Your utility probably offers more than one rate.

How we measured this

• Source: EIA-861 final data for 2025, residential revenue divided by residential sales, for bundled service: customers who buy their electricity from the utility itself. In states where households can choose a supplier, that is the utility's default service.
• Utilities: the 163 with at least 100,000 residential customers that EIA lists as investor-owned, cooperative, municipal, or another public owner. Retail suppliers and community aggregators are left out, because they sell electricity over another utility's wires.
• One left out: NSTAR Electric (Eversource) in Massachusetts. Its 2025 bundled price as reported, 21.5¢, is barely above what it collected for delivery alone, 20.1¢, and well below what its own tariffs charge, which points to a reporting error.
• Names are as EIA lists them, with the name customers know where it differs.

What to do with this

You cannot switch utility, but you can usually choose its cheapest rate for your usage. Open the calculator, choose your state and utility, and enter the monthly kWh from your bill.