Investor-owned utilities charge 23% more for electricity than public providers

Investor-owned utilities charge 23% more for electricity than public ones In 2025, homes paid 17.8¢ a kilowatt-hour at investor-owned utilities, 14.5¢ at public utilities and 14.1¢ at co-ops. Since 2020, investor-owned prices rose 34% and public ones 19%, against 24% inflation. Average home price by utility owner Change since 2020 against inflation, or cents per kilowatt-hour since 2015. Change since 2020Change Cents per kWhCents Tabular dataTabular Download Every year since 2015: home revenue, kWh sold, homes, price and bill by utility owner, for the US and each state, as a gzipped CSV. Source: EIA annual survey of utilities (Form 861), homes buying supply and delivery from their utility; BLS CPI. Home prices in 2025 Share of homes by their utility's average price per kilowatt-hour, in 2-cent bands. Chart Tabular dataTabular Source: EIA annual survey of utilities (Form 861), homes buying supply and delivery from their utility. Price change by state, 2020 to 2025 Investor-owned prices rose faster than nonprofit (public and co-op) prices in 38 of the 48 states with both: investor-owned against nonprofit. Chart Tabular dataTabular Maine Washington California New Jersey New York Ohio Delaware Oregon Oklahoma Illinois Pennsylvania Wyoming Hawaii Maryland Florida Colorado North Carolina Indiana Georgia Mississippi Wisconsin Rhode Island Virginia Montana Connecticut Alabama Minnesota Texas Arizona Utah North Dakota New Mexico Alaska New Hampshire Tennessee Nevada South Carolina Massachusetts Nonprofit prices rose as fast or faster in these 10 South Dakota Michigan Louisiana Missouri Idaho Kansas Vermont Arkansas Iowa Kentucky Source: EIA annual survey of utilities (Form 861), homes buying supply and delivery from their utility. Largest utilities, 2020 to 2025 Change in the average home price at utilities with 250,000 or more homes: investor-owned, public and co-op. Chart Tabular dataTabular New York State Electric & Gas, NY+97% San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E), CA+79% Potomac Electric Power, DC+76% Rochester Gas & Electric, NY+75% Southern California Edison (SCE), CA+73% Tampa Electric, FL+72% Ameren Illinois, IL+72% Central Maine Power, ME+69% Baltimore Gas & Electric, MD+67% Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), CA+59% Appalachian Power (AEP), VA+59% Puget Sound Energy, WA+57% National Grid (Niagara Mohawk), NY+57% Duke Energy Ohio, OH+52% Portland General Electric, OR+50% AEP Ohio, OH+50% PSO (AEP), OK+50% Potomac Electric Power, MD+49% Delmarva Power, DE+48% Duquesne Light, PA+46% Source: EIA annual survey of utilities (Form 861), homes buying supply and delivery from their utility; BLS CPI. About the data Public power is common where electricity is cheap, so we also compared utilities within each state. Investor-owned prices rose faster in 38 of 48 states. Most of the gap opened from 2020 to 2023, during the energy price spike: 25% at investor-owned utilities, 11% at public utilities and co-ops. Before and since, both rose at about the same pace. After inflation, investor-owned prices rose 7.9%. Public and co-op prices fell 4.3%. Co-op homes have the highest bills, $159 a month in 2025, because they use the most power. Homes that buy power from a retail supplier aren't in the investor-owned figures. Counting them, prices on investor-owned lines rose 36%. Price is what homes paid divided by the kilowatt-hours they used, from EIA's yearly survey of utilities. Federal utilities and the smallest ones are left out. The data shows what homes paid, not why. Investor-owned utilities earn a return for shareholders on what they build. Public utilities and co-ops have no shareholders. See the rate cases for increases utilities are asking for now.