Guides
How American electricity pricing actually works
The data on this site tells you what a kilowatt-hour costs. These guides explain the machinery behind that number: who sets it, which part of your bill you can change, and where the money on a typical $155 monthly bill goes.
Your bill
How to read your electricity bill Every American electricity bill is built from the same handful of parts. Once you can name them, you can tell which ones you are able to change. Read Supply versus delivery: which half of your bill can you actually change? Shopping for a cheaper supplier only touches one half of the bill. In several states it is the smaller half, which is why switching disappoints so often. Read A plain-English glossary of electricity bill terms Demand charge, price to compare, rider, PUC, capacity, kWh versus kW. The vocabulary utilities use, translated. Read Why your electric bill changes so much between seasons A bill that doubles in July or January is usually not a rate change. It is usage, tiered pricing and billing-period length compounding each other. Read
How the market works
Why electricity costs four times more in one state than another The spread between the cheapest and most expensive American electricity is enormous, and almost none of it is the cost of generating power. Read What a capacity market is, and why it raised your bill A single auction most people have never heard of pushed residential rates up across six states in one year. Here is what it does and why it repriced. Read Retail choice: when switching supplier saves money and when it does not Sixteen states let households buy electricity from a competitive supplier. State regulators keep finding that most switchers lose money. Both things are true. Read Who decides what you pay for electricity In most of the country a small commission, often elected, sets your rate in a public proceeding you are entitled to participate in. Read
Spending less
Time-of-use rates: who they help and who they punish Paying different prices at different hours is either the largest saving available to you or a quiet penalty, depending on one thing about your household. Read What it costs to heat a home: heat pump, resistance, gas The arithmetic that decides whether electric heating is cheaper than gas where you live, using your own state rate rather than a national average. Read Net metering: what your solar exports are actually worth The rules that decide what a utility pays for the power your roof sends back have changed sharply, and they vary enormously by state. Read Help paying your electric bill, and why most of it goes unclaimed LIHEAP, weatherisation, utility discount rates and shutoff protections. Substantial programmes that eligible households routinely miss. Read
Start with your own numbers
Most of these guides are more useful with your own figures in front of you. The U.S. average residential rate is 18.44ยข per kilowatt-hour as of May 2026, but the state you live in moves that a great deal, and how much you use moves the bill even more.