This page explains why electricity prices went up (or down) in your state or region.
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How about greed? Our utility company executives continue to get huge raises on top of their already large salaries. All this while our rates climb. I think we have the second highest rates of any state.
That’s why we got solar.
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My monthly bill on the budget plan just went from $450 to $550, folks are losing their minds on sites like Nextdoor.
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This. From the article:
a greater share of Arizona residents are exposed to scorching summer temperatures — and therefore use more air conditioning, especially in population centers like Phoenix.
I track our utilities monthly. The combination of whole-house solar in Arizona combined with being in Maine all summer keeps our AZ electric bill very low. Last year, our monthly average AZ electric bill was $15.84.
But you can clearly see the rate difference in Maine while we’re there June-Oct where we run our mini-split for A/C and heat. However, the combination of not needing much A/C in AZ in the summer or heat in Maine in the winter keeps our overall electricity costs low.
We moved from the NE Phoenix/Scottsdale area, where summer electricity costs were around $400/monthly, to our current community partly for its energy efficiency focus. This development was originally designed as a solar farm for our electric provider (though now, in later phases, solar is optional for new builds).
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I live in Massachusetts, I think we have the highest electricity rate in the country right now. What kills me is that 2/3 of my bill is delivery cost. People in one bedroom apartments are seeing monthly $500 electric bills this winter.
Then, this came out yesterday “After year of skyrocketing utility bills, Eversource reports skyrocketing profits”. (Eversource is the biggest electric company in the state.)
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https://www.visualcapitalist.com/mapped-the-average-cost-of-electricity-by-u-s-state/
No thumbnail, but this is an infographic of average electricity cost per state, on the US map. Our camp in Maine has seen significant rate increases just over the past 4-5 years. I am constantly in conflict with my siblings and their families, who run the washer/dryer sometimes multiple times every day they are there in the summer (Hey! Hang those clothes outside!)
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Do these apartments have heating by electric resistance heaters (probably the most expensive kind of heating)?
S is in Chicago and his electric bill for a one bedroom apartment has been close to $500 this winter.
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Many apartments in Massachusetts are older and have baseboard electric heating, which is very inefficient. They also typically have older leaky windows and poor insulation.
I’m in Texas and fortunately have not seen any increase. Thankfully I live in a relatively new home that is energy efficient. Despite the cold winter and extremely hot summer and fall, I average $180 per month for electricity and gas, 2200 sq foot home. And I keep it quite warm (unbearably so my kids would say) during the winter. I haven’t heard any complaints from my neighbors. Now the water bill … that has caused a lot of complaints this past year.
I am personally OK with our utility costs. I get grumbly over the $65/month user fees that I’d have to pay even if I shut everything off. I live in a gigantic, old, not well insulated house. I can’t expect greatness or even average. We had to get a new boiler and a new heat pump (AC) in 2018/2019. Our costs afterwards are less today than they were 20 years ago. Ours are roughly $320/month for elec/water/gas/trash - locality owns everything. In contrast, my little 1960s ranch in the mid 90s to mid 2000s was $270/month. I didn’t watch what I set the thermostat at back then.
From the online comments, a shockingly high number of people in my community have no idea how utility bills are calculated. They swear they just pick a number each month. “I keep my thermostat at the same temperature. They charged me $100 more in December and $200 more in January! The FBI needs to investigate!” In general our bills here are high because all of our houses are old/not well built, and people have no idea how to help conserve energy. But reading comments of bills in the $800-1000/month range is not unusual this time of year.
But also the bigger issue in our area is reliability. For what we pay, it’d be nice not to lose power every month for seemingly no reason. Or this week, the entire community was without water and still under a boil water notice until at least Saturday now… And no catastrophic event occurred. A 1” rainstorm over 24 hours. It’s been a mess. Tons of grumbling while receiving bills in the mail that to pay for January/Feb - where we had the coldest month in decades. My bill will be between $650-700 and I consider that great!
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I live in MA and my electricity bills (National Grid) are through the roof!! I’ve had Mass Save, a group that provides free energy efficiency assessments for home owners, come out numerous times. (It’s not really free because it’s funded by the rate payers.)
We have good insulation, all LED lights, a heat pump and backup radiant heat (powered by a gas boiler). I’ve unplugged most appliances I don’t use all the time, e.g., coffee pot, toaster, etc. I don’t leave lights on in rooms we aren’t using. None of this lowered my costs in any significant way. This year National Grid offered folks who had installed heat pumps a few cents off their electric bills from November to March. I had to fill out a ton of paper work, but I did get the discount and it may have helped me save a few $$. I also learned from my heating company that heat pumps are not that efficient when the temperature goes between 40-25 degrees and even less efficient below 25 degrees. (That happens in MA fairly often.)The delivery fees (which I’m not sure I really understand) are as much as the actual cost of the electricity. It seems like there’s not much a consumer can do . . . end of my rant.
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By state, the highest average residential rates are in Hawaii and California, followed by several northeast states (not MA). Massachusetts is not among top 10. I live in a county of CA that usually either has the highest or near highest electric rates, among counties US. I think the article oversimplifies the reasons for this. While wildfires contribute, there many other contributing factors including:
- Solar – Under NEM 2.0, electric company was losing money on solar customers. These losses get passed on to non-solar customers, in the form of higher rates. This has a death spiral effect as the increased rates causes an increasing portion of customers to switch to solar, which further accelerates the increasing rates. NEM 3.0 and this year’s increased minimum charge per month attempt to mitigate this death spiral, but existing solar customers are still grandfathered in to the bulk of NEM 2.0 rules. Climate is better suited for solar than most other areas of CA.
- Renewable Energy & Climate Mandates – CA has some of the strictest clean energy rules among US states, limiting electric companies options for lower cost energy suppliers.
- Customer Density – The combination of solar and electric company supporting less dense population than certain other regions of CA, leads to few customers per mile than other areas of CA.
- Investor Owned – Electric company is investor owned, not municipal, and state permits a greater degree of profit for investor owened.
- Infrastructure Updates – Compared to other areas of CA, mine started infrastructure updates earlier than elsewhere with a larger expense than other regions of CA. Some of this is wildfire mitigation. Some are other types of infrastructure updates.
I have solar, so my net electric cost was ~$0 per year every year in past. However, under the new 2026 rules mentioned above, I expect my cost to increase to $10/month or so from minimum fees; regardless of how electric rates change.
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