Home Energy

Black River Electric Coop, Inc - (SC)

Black River Electric Coop, Inc - (SC) is a member-owned cooperative, serving 30,610 residential accounts in South Carolina. Everything below comes from its own 2024 filing with the US Energy Information Administration — the numbers the company reported about itself.

Average residential rate
$0.135/kWh

2024 annual average

Homes with solar
450

1.5% of residential accounts

Rooftop capacity
4 MW

residential, net-metered

What households here pay

Residential customers on Black River Electric Coop, Inc - (SC)'s own supply paid an average of $0.135 per kWh across 2024 — total residential revenue divided by total residential kilowatt-hours sold, so it includes the fixed monthly charge, riders and fuel adjustments, not just the headline energy rate. It is the number your own bill would produce if you divided the annual total by the kWh.

South Carolina's statewide average was $0.156/kWh in June 2026 on EIA's monthly series. This utility's 2024 average ran about 13% below that. The two figures are measured differently and are two years apart, so read the gap as direction, not as a precise difference.

That made it the 7th cheapest of the 17 South Carolina utilities on this site in 2024.

What it did between 2020 and 2024

Black River Electric Coop, Inc - (SC)'s all-in residential rate went from $0.120 in 2020 to $0.135 in 2024 — a rise of 12.1%. Each year is that year's own Form 861 filing, worked out the same way as the figure above.

Across the 505 utilities on this site the middle one moved up 15.7% over the same years, so Black River Electric Coop, Inc - (SC) moved with the pack. Rates rose almost everywhere in this window; the comparison is what says whether a number is unusual.

$0.120 2020
$0.121 2021
$0.120 2022
$0.128 2023
$0.135 2024

Residential revenue over residential sales, bundled service only, from each year's EIA Form 861.

How many neighbours already did it

450 homes on this system had a net-metered solar array at the end of 2024 — 14.7 per thousand residential accounts, or 1.5% of them. That is close to the median US utility on this site.

That ranks 6 of 16 South Carolina utilities reporting net-metered solar.

20 of those systems — 4% — also report a paired battery. Battery attach rates rise where exports earn less than retail, because storing a kilowatt-hour and using it later is worth more than selling it. Exports here still earn full retail, so the incentive to store is weaker.

The rule that decides this, and it changed

The 30% federal residential credit (§25D) expired for systems placed in service after 31 December 2025. Every payback figure written before 2026 — including anything quoted at you by an installer working from an old spreadsheet — is overstated by roughly a third for a purchase. Leases and PPAs still reach §48E until the end of 2027, which is why the ownership question now decides more than the hardware does.

Run the South Carolina numbers on 2026 rules →

Other South Carolina utilities

Utility Accounts Avg rate Solar per 1,000
Dominion Energy South Carolina, Inc 696,385 $0.146 23.1
Duke Energy Carolinas, LLC 568,586 $0.140 21.8
South Carolina Public Service Authority 185,529 $0.114 9.9
Duke Energy Progress - (NC) 143,713 $0.149 16.3
Berkeley Electric Coop Inc 115,117 $0.149 16.1
Horry Electric Coop Inc 86,726 $0.132 3.4
Palmetto Electric Coop Inc 68,338 $0.128 3.7
Blue Ridge Electric Coop Inc - (SC) 67,553 $0.189 4.3
York Electric Coop Inc 65,244 $0.127 16.9
Laurens Electric Coop, Inc 58,438 $0.147 4.2
Mid-Carolina Electric Coop Inc 56,463 $0.149 3.3
Aiken Electric Coop Inc 49,460 $0.155 9.0

Where these numbers come from

US Energy Information Administration, Form EIA-861, data year 2024 — the annual filing every US electric utility makes. Rates are residential revenue divided by residential sales on bundled service; solar counts are from the net-metering schedule of the same filing. Utility number 1763. Download the source archive and check any figure here against it.

Form 861 is annual and publishes roughly eleven months after the year it covers, so 2024 is the most recent utility-level data that exists anywhere. It is not today's tariff. For a current price, read your own bill; for a current rate structure, read the utility's tariff sheet. This page is for scale and comparison — what a typical household on this system pays, and how many of them have already installed solar.

Written and maintained by . Last reviewed 2026-08-19.