Empire District Electric Co electricity rates

It serves 142,537 residential customers in Missouri. Its 14.99¢ per kilowatt-hour runs 9.6% above the Missouri average of 13.68¢.

Its customers use more electricity than the national norm, 1,010 kilowatt-hours a month against 871, which amplifies whatever the rate does.

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 231 minutes without electricity across 1.36 interruptions. The median across the 941 utilities that report this is 185 minutes.

That is worse than typical. Overhead lines through wooded or storm-exposed terrain are the usual explanation, and the fix is vegetation management and circuit automation, both of which are recovered through rates.

Empire District Electric Co offers time-of-use pricing to residential customers. 141,784 households were enrolled, about 99.5% of its residential base.

These plans are opt-in almost everywhere. They reward households that can move laundry, dishwashing, water heating or electric vehicle charging out of the late-afternoon peak, and they cost more than the standard rate for households that cannot. How to tell which group you are in.

4,847 residential customers had net-metered solar in 2024, totalling 62.96 megawatts. That works out to 34 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.