Central Electric Membership Corp. electricity rates

It is a smaller system, serving 22,071 residential customers, which means its fixed costs are spread across a narrow base. Its 14.34¢ per kilowatt-hour sits 5% below the North Carolina average of 15.09¢.

Consumption here is high, 1,284 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 customers it serves, with directors elected by members. Co-ops are frequently outside state rate regulation. 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 Central Electric Membership Corp. customer went 443 minutes without electricity . 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.

Central Electric Membership Corp. offers time-of-use pricing to residential customers. 3 households were enrolled, about 0.1% 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.