Electricity Rates by State

The national average retail electricity price per kWh is 10.48 cents per kilowatt-hour. As we can see from the chart below 11% of electricity comes from renewable sources including hydroelectric.  23%  (of that 11%) comes from hydro, only 8% (of that 11%) comes from solar and 22% comes from wind.

A variety of factors go into determining electricity costs. One of the most easily observed is the cost of the basic energy input whether it be coal, oil, natural gas, nuclear, solar or wind. States like Alaska and Hawaii have high costs of energy inputs primarily due to long transportation distances and the corresponding high costs. Hawaii has a variety of logistical issues being a small island state in the middle of the Pacific ocean. Despite the fact that Hawaii is in the process of converting to 100% renewable energy, Hawaii has the most expensive electricity at 29.18¢/kwh.

The majority of Hawaii’s electricity is still generated by Petroleum fired generators followed by coal-fired plants but renewables produce almost 1/8th of the electricity approaching coal’s generating capacity.

In 2018, solar power provided more than half of Hawaii’s total renewable generation, primarily because of the growth of small-scale, customer-sited solar photovoltaic generation, which has almost doubled since 2014. Hawaii’s goal is to be 100% renewable by 2045.

At the other end of the spectrum, Alaska has its own issues the population is very sparse with many small villages located long distances from each other. Many rural communities in Alaska rely primarily on diesel-electric generators for power, and Alaska ranks second only to Hawaii in the share of its electricity–13% in 2018–that is generated from petroleum fuels.

Alaska also set a renewable energy goal i.e. to generate 50% of its electricity from renewable and alternative energy sources by 2025. In Alaska’s case renewables already accounted for about 30% of the state’s electricity generation in 2018. But unlike Hawaii, Alaska’s renewables come primarily from hydroelectric. Despite being a large natural gas producer, Alaska ranks third in the nation in natural gas gross withdrawals, but there is no pipeline to bring the gas to market, so about 90% of the state’s gas production is reinjected into oil fields to help maintain crude oil production rates.

Ten Highest Average Residential Electricity Rates by State

Data source: U S Energy Information Administration

Ten Lowest Average Residential Electricity Rates by State

Louisiana is one of the top five natural gas-producing states. It accounts for 7% of U.S. total gas production and has about 8% of the nation’s gas reserves, so naturally, it relies primarily on Natural Gas for its electricity production. With an average electricity cost of 7.71¢/kwh, it ranks the lowest in the U.S.

Like its neighbor Louisiana, Arkansas has quite a bit of Natural Gas-fired electricity generation. But unlike Lousiana, Arkansas has more coal-fired generation along with some Nuclear, Hydro, and other renewables.

The following interactive map from electricrate.com shows electric rates by state. You can mouse-over individual states to get more information.

Data source: U S Energy Information Administration

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