Empire District Electric Co electricity rates

It is a smaller system, serving 4,813 residential customers, which means its fixed costs are spread across a narrow base. Its 13.39¢ per kilowatt-hour sits 6.8% below the Arkansas average of 14.36¢.

Consumption is close to the national norm at 918 kilowatt-hours a month against 871, so the rate translates fairly directly into the bill.

A shareholder-owned company whose rates are set by the state regulator, including an approved return on the capital it has invested. That matters because a bill is not only the cost of generating electricity: it also carries the cost of the network, and who owns that network changes how it is paid for.

In 2024 the average Empire District Electric Co customer went 673 minutes without electricity across 2.47 interruptions. The median across the 941 utilities that report this is 185 minutes.

That is far worse than typical, and figures at this level almost always reflect a major storm season rather than everyday performance. A single hurricane or ice storm can dominate the annual number.

166 residential customers had net-metered solar in 2024, totalling 1.36 megawatts. That works out to 34.5 installations per thousand customers, against a median of 8 across the utilities reporting it.

Adoption here is exceptionally high. That usually means some combination of a high retail rate worth displacing, strong sunshine and favourable export rules, and it tends to bring its own regulatory argument about who covers the fixed cost of the network. What exports are actually worth.