What US households pay for electricity, and how fast it is rising
In June 2026, the average US household paid $0.183 per kilowatt-hour — +5.0% against the same month a year earlier. Over the last five years the national price has risen +5.8% a year; over ten, +3.7% a year.
- National average
- $0.183
- Year over year
- +5.0%
- Ten-year trend
- +3.7%
per kWh, June 2026
45 states up, 5 down
a year, compounded
What this does to a solar quote
Every payback figure on this site — and in every quote you will be shown — rests on an assumption about this number. We model 3.0% a year. The actual ten-year national rate is +3.7% a year and the five-year rate is +5.8% a year, so our assumption sits below what has actually happened.
That asymmetry is deliberate. Escalation is the most abusable input in a solar sales pitch: at 6% a year almost any system pays back, and salespeople know it. If the numbers work at a sober assumption, they work. If a quote only works at 5–6%, it is betting your money on a trend continuing for twenty-five years.
Every state, ranked by how fast prices moved
The spread is enormous and it is not weather. Hawaii rose +28.7% in a year while Connecticut moved -10.6%. Rate cases, fuel costs and capacity markets decide this, and they are decided state by state — which is why a national payback figure is close to meaningless.
| State | Rate | 1 year | 5 years/yr | 10 years/yr |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hawaii | $0.527 | +28.7% | +9.8% | +6.7% |
| Idaho | $0.144 | +19.1% | +7.7% | +3.6% |
| Washington | $0.149 | +15.0% | +8.0% | +4.4% |
| New Hampshire | $0.270 | +14.9% | +7.0% | +4.1% |
| Maryland | $0.218 | +13.2% | +10.8% | +4.1% |
| Virginia | $0.172 | +13.1% | +6.8% | +3.5% |
| New York | $0.295 | +11.1% | +8.5% | +5.1% |
| Michigan | $0.230 | +10.4% | +5.2% | +4.1% |
| Pennsylvania | $0.217 | +10.4% | +9.2% | +4.6% |
| North Carolina | $0.147 | +10.2% | +5.4% | +2.9% |
| Ohio | $0.192 | +9.7% | +7.6% | +4.3% |
| Rhode Island | $0.292 | +8.9% | +8.2% | +4.6% |
| Illinois | $0.199 | +8.8% | +9.2% | +4.7% |
| South Dakota | $0.154 | +8.0% | +3.5% | +2.5% |
| Nevada | $0.131 | +6.9% | +3.2% | +1.4% |
| Colorado | $0.171 | +6.8% | +5.6% | +3.1% |
| Kentucky | $0.143 | +6.4% | +4.5% | +3.1% |
| Vermont | $0.244 | +6.3% | +4.8% | +3.3% |
| Indiana | $0.175 | +6.3% | +5.1% | +4.1% |
| Delaware | $0.193 | +6.2% | +9.2% | +3.6% |
| Louisiana | $0.135 | +5.9% | +3.5% | +3.9% |
| Mississippi | $0.149 | +5.8% | +4.8% | +3.5% |
| Wisconsin | $0.196 | +5.6% | +5.9% | +2.9% |
| Arkansas | $0.141 | +5.6% | +3.9% | +3.2% |
| Maine | $0.296 | +5.1% | +12.3% | +6.5% |
| Oklahoma | $0.143 | +5.1% | +4.9% | +3.5% |
| South Carolina | $0.156 | +5.1% | +3.7% | +1.9% |
| Alaska | $0.282 | +5.0% | +3.6% | +3.0% |
| Texas | $0.159 | +4.5% | +5.8% | +3.8% |
| Kansas | $0.157 | +4.5% | +3.3% | +1.6% |
| Iowa | $0.159 | +3.9% | +2.6% | +1.8% |
| California | $0.347 | +3.4% | +8.5% | +6.7% |
| Oregon | $0.163 | +3.3% | +7.2% | +4.2% |
| North Dakota | $0.141 | +3.0% | +2.9% | +2.3% |
| New Mexico | $0.151 | +2.6% | +1.7% | +2.2% |
| Georgia | $0.164 | +2.5% | +3.9% | +2.9% |
| Wyoming | $0.152 | +2.4% | +4.8% | +2.6% |
| Minnesota | $0.175 | +2.3% | +4.3% | +3.2% |
| Montana | $0.151 | +2.2% | +5.7% | +2.8% |
| Alabama | $0.164 | +2.1% | +4.1% | +3.1% |
| Utah | $0.134 | +2.1% | +4.4% | +1.6% |
| Missouri | $0.162 | +1.9% | +4.2% | +2.4% |
| Tennessee | $0.141 | +1.8% | +4.4% | +3.0% |
| Nebraska | $0.133 | +0.8% | +3.3% | +1.1% |
| New Jersey | $0.250 | +0.3% | +8.8% | +4.5% |
| Arizona | $0.152 | -0.3% | +3.7% | +2.0% |
| Florida | $0.151 | -1.6% | +4.9% | +3.3% |
| West Virginia | $0.155 | -2.3% | +4.8% | +0.8% |
| Massachusetts | $0.296 | -2.4% | +5.9% | +4.8% |
| Connecticut | $0.243 | -10.6% | +3.2% | +1.5% |
A state average is not your bill
These are statewide averages across every utility, and the spread inside a state is often wider than the spread between states. Hawaii leads this table at $0.527, but what you pay depends on the company that bills you. We publish the same figure for 507 individual utilities , from their own federal filings.
Method
US Energy Information Administration, Form EIA-826, monthly retail sales and revenue by state. The residential price is total residential revenue divided by total residential sales, so it is an all-in figure including fixed charges and riders, not a headline energy rate. The national figure is aggregated the same way — total revenue over total sales — rather than by averaging the states, which would give Wyoming the same weight as California. Multi-year figures are compound annual rates between the same month in each year, so seasonality cancels.
Latest data: June 2026. EIA publishes about two months in arrears and revises recent months. This page is rebuilt monthly from the source file; any figure here can be checked against it.
Written and maintained by guarledes . Last reviewed 2026-09-24.