Haywood Electric Member Corp electricity rates

It is a smaller system, serving 29,078 residential customers, which means its fixed costs are spread across a narrow base. Its 16.60¢ per kilowatt-hour runs 10% above the North Carolina average of 15.09¢.

Consumption is close to the national norm at 807 kilowatt-hours a month against 871, so the rate translates fairly directly into the bill.

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 Haywood Electric Member Corp customer went 9,612 minutes without electricity across 6.66 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.

Haywood Electric Member Corp offers time-of-use pricing to residential customers. 35 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.

191 residential customers had net-metered solar in 2024, totalling 1.5 megawatts. That works out to 6.6 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.