Rate or Usage: What Actually Drives Your State's Electric Bill

Find what drives your electric bill

Rates and averages explain the price of a kilowatt-hour, not how many you use. A plug-in energy meter logs what one corded 120 V appliance really draws over a week. A whole-home monitor logs every circuit at once, so the biggest loads on your own bill show up by name. Its sensors clip on inside the panel, which is work for an electrician if that isn't you.

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Plug-in power meter

P3 International Kill A Watt P4400

Best for: Measuring what one plug-in appliance really uses

Check price at P3 International: P3 International Kill A Watt P4400 (opens in a new tab)

Whole-home energy monitor

Emporia Vue 3 Home Energy Monitor (16 circuit sensors)

Best for: Measuring hardwired and 240 V loads, or every circuit at once

Check price on Amazon: Emporia Vue 3 Home Energy Monitor (16 circuit sensors) (opens in a new tab)(paid link)

The extremes

• Hawaii pays the highest rate in the country at 42.86¢/kWh, and also has the highest bill at $212.12, despite using 495 kWh a month, among the lowest consumption anywhere. Even severe conservation cannot offset a rate that far above average.
• North Dakota pays the cheapest rate at 11.51¢/kWh, yet its bill of $118.38 ranks #38, not last. Cheap power invites consumption.
• Louisiana uses the most electricity in America at 1,202 kWh a month, nearly 1.4× the national average, and still lands at #22 on bills, because it pays only 11.73¢/kWh.

Where rate rank and bill rank disagree most

A positive gap means the state is cheaper on rate than its bill suggests: it uses a lot. A negative gap means the opposite.

Every state, ranked by bill

Methodology

• Data: EIA residential average price, consumption, and bill by state, 2024 annual. National averages: 16.48¢/kWh, 863 kWh/month, $142.26/month.
• Correlation: Pearson's r across all 51 jurisdictions, unweighted by population: each state counts once, so this describes states, not households. Weighting by customers would pull the result toward the large states.
• Correlation is not cause. The negative rate-usage relationship is not simply price response. Climate and heating fuel drive much of it: cheap-power states skew hot and humid with electric cooling and electric heat, while several expensive states are mild or heat with gas. Housing size and age matter too.
• Spread is the ratio of highest to lowest across states: rates 3.7×, usage 2.4×, bills 2.3×.
• Reuse: free to cite or republish with attribution and a link to this page.

Related

• Electricity rates by state →
• Average electric bill by state →
• Most expensive utilities →
• All reports →