City of Memphis electricity rates

It serves 380,286 residential customers, making it one of the larger utilities in Tennessee. At 12.16¢ per kilowatt-hour it is one of the cheaper places to buy electricity in Tennessee, 16% under the statewide average of 14.47¢.

Its customers use more electricity than the national norm, 1,139 kilowatt-hours a month against 871, which amplifies whatever 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.

In 2024 the average City of Memphis customer went 327 minutes without electricity across 1.95 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.

City of Memphis offers time-of-use pricing to residential customers. 61 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.