Paragould Municipal Utilities electricity rates

It is a smaller system, serving 12,540 residential customers, which means its fixed costs are spread across a narrow base. At 9.48¢ per kilowatt-hour it is one of the cheaper places to buy electricity in Arkansas, 34% under the statewide average of 14.36¢.

Consumption here is high, 1,328 kilowatt-hours a month against a national average of 871. Long cooling seasons, large detached homes and electric resistance heating are the usual causes, and together they matter more to the bill than the rate does.

Owned by the city it serves and governed by a local board rather than the state commission. No shareholder return is built into the rate. 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.

17 residential customers had net-metered solar in 2024, totalling 0.33 megawatts. That works out to 1.4 installations per thousand customers, against a median of 8 across the utilities reporting it.

Adoption is below the national median. A low retail rate reduces what solar displaces, and export compensation set at avoided cost rather than the retail rate reduces it further. What exports are actually worth.