Clay Electric Cooperative: rates, bills and outages

What Clay Electric members paid per kWh

Clay Electric Cooperative is a member-owned, not-for-profit electric cooperative serving north-central and northeast Florida, with 173,966 residential accounts and 197,309 accounts in all in 2025. Its residential members paid an average of 14.02¢ per kWh¹ that year. That figure is average revenue per kWh: everything residential members were billed, divided by the kWh they used. It folds the fixed monthly charge and the Power Cost Adjustment into one number and leaves out most taxes, so a member who uses little electricity pays more than this per kWh and one who uses a lot pays less.

Where the 2025 average sits:

• 18th highest of the 36 Florida utilities with 10,000 or more residential customers, and 7.8% below the Florida average (15.21¢ per kWh², all providers).
• Below the combined average of Florida's cooperatives, 14.43¢ per kWh, and 0.6% below the national average for electric cooperatives.
• 68th lowest of 177 among US utilities with 100,000 or more residential customers, whose median was 15.07¢ per kWh¹.

EIA collects Clay's figures once a year, on form EIA-861, and does not include the cooperative in its monthly utility sample. The table below is therefore the complete official record for the last two years; the 2025 data were released on October 7, 2026.

How Clay's prices change: the Power Cost Adjustment

From 2024 to 2025, Clay's residential average rose 7.1%, close to the Florida average increase of 7.6%². Use per home hardly moved, so the average bill rose by almost the same proportion, +7.5%¹.

Clay announces many of its price changes through one line of the bill. The Power Cost Adjustment passes changes in the cost of wholesale power to members, and it can be a charge or a credit. Clay buys its power from Seminole Electric Cooperative. In a notice dated July 30, 2025, Clay said the adjustment would rise from August 2025 bills after Seminole's data showed higher supply costs, mainly from a forecast rise in natural gas prices. A second notice, dated May 28, 2026, announced a further increase from June 2026 bills, again citing higher wholesale power costs. Clay states the effect of each change for a home using 1,000 kWh a month; its members actually averaged 1,220 kWh¹ in 2025, so the typical change on their bills was larger than the example.

Clay's rate decisions are its own. Florida's statute defining the "public utilities" whose rates the Public Service Commission regulates excludes cooperatives organized under the state's Rural Electric Cooperative Law (Florida Statutes, Definitions), so there is no base-rate case for Clay of the kind Florida Power & Light and Duke Energy Florida go through. Over the same period the residential average rose 6.6% at Florida Power & Light, 10.4% at Duke Energy Florida, 11.3% at JEA and 14.4%¹ at SECO Energy, all utilities that serve parts of Clay's counties.

Higher use per home, a bill above the state's

Clay homes used more electricity than homes on most neighbouring systems: 1,220 kWh a month on average in 2025, against 1,057 kWh at JEA, 1,111 kWh at FPL, 1,009 kWh at Duke Energy Florida, 1,010 kWh¹ at SECO Energy and 1,103 kWh⁴ across Florida. EIA's data count the kWh, not the reasons; the size and type of homes, and how many heat and cool with electricity, all shift the average.

Duke Energy Florida (FL)1,009

SECO Energy (FL)1,010

JEA (FL)1,057

Florida Power & Light (FL)1,111

Clay Electric Cooperative (FL)1,220

Source: EIA-861 annual electric power industry report, 2025 final. EIA-861 2025 final. Average revenue per kWh is all charges divided by kWh; it is not a tariff rate.

Show the numbers

Utility	average monthly residential use
Duke Energy Florida (FL)	1,009
SECO Energy (FL)	1,010
JEA (FL)	1,057
Florida Power & Light (FL)	1,111
Clay Electric Cooperative (FL)	1,220

That use turns a middling price into an above-average bill. Clay's $171.01 compares with $146.38 at JEA, whose customers paid a slightly lower average price (13.84¢ per kWh), $162.38 at FPL (14.62¢ per kWh) and $151.31 at SECO Energy (14.98¢ per kWh). Duke Energy Florida's homes used less but paid 18.36¢ per kWh, and their average bill, $185.26¹, was the highest of the group.

JEA (FL)$146.38

SECO Energy (FL)$151.31

Florida Power & Light (FL)$162.38

Clay Electric Cooperative (FL)$171.01

Duke Energy Florida (FL)$185.26

Source: EIA-861 annual electric power industry report, 2025 final. EIA-861 2025 final. Average revenue per kWh is all charges divided by kWh; it is not a tariff rate.

Show the numbers

Utility	average monthly residential bill
JEA (FL)	$146.38
SECO Energy (FL)	$151.31
Florida Power & Light (FL)	$162.38
Clay Electric Cooperative (FL)	$171.01
Duke Energy Florida (FL)	$185.26

These are averages over the whole year. Florida's statewide monthly data show how far a summer month runs above them: in August 2026, the average Florida home used 1,449 kWh and was billed $217.28⁵ (preliminary).

Service area: north-central Florida, shared with FPL, Duke and city systems

EIA's service-territory records place Clay Electric in 15 counties: Alachua, Baker, Bradford, Clay, Columbia, Duval, Flagler, Gilchrist, Lake, Levy, Marion, Putnam, Suwannee, Union and Volusia. In all 15⁶, at least one other distribution utility also reports customers. FPL and Duke Energy Florida each appear in most of them, JEA in Clay and Duval, SECO Energy in Lake, Levy and Marion, and city utilities such as Gainesville Regional Utilities, Ocala, Starke and Green Cove Springs serve their own areas inside Clay's counties.

A town or ZIP code therefore does not settle which utility serves a home, and EIA publishes no city-level prices. Clay Electric's own service map decides by address. Florida has no residential retail choice (0.0%¹ of residential customers bought from another supplier in 2025), so the utility on the address is also the supplier.

Clay Electric Cooperative onlyClay Electric Cooperative and other utilitiesOther utilities

Source: EIA-861 2025, service territory; Census Bureau, Cartographic boundary file, counties. EIA-861 2025 service territory: 15 counties. Counts whole counties even where the utility serves only part of one; check the utility's own service-area map for an address.

Show the numbers

County	Other utilities reporting service
Alachua County	Florida Power & Light, Duke Energy Florida, Gainesville Regional Utilities, Central Florida Electric Cooperative, City of Alachua, City of Newberry
Baker County	Florida Power & Light, Okefenoke Rural Electric Membership Corporation
Bradford County	Florida Power & Light, City of Starke
Clay County	Florida Power & Light, JEA, City of Green Cove Springs
Columbia County	Florida Power & Light, Duke Energy Florida, Suwannee Valley Electric Cooperative
Duval County	Florida Power & Light, JEA, Beaches Energy Services
Flagler County	Florida Power & Light, Duke Energy Florida
Gilchrist County	Duke Energy Florida, Central Florida Electric Cooperative
Lake County	Duke Energy Florida, SECO Energy, City of Leesburg, City of Mount Dora
Levy County	Duke Energy Florida, SECO Energy, Central Florida Electric Cooperative, City of Williston
Marion County	Duke Energy Florida, SECO Energy, City of Ocala, Central Florida Electric Cooperative
Putnam County	Florida Power & Light
Suwannee County	Florida Power & Light, Duke Energy Florida, Suwannee Valley Electric Cooperative
Union County	Florida Power & Light
Volusia County	Florida Power & Light, Duke Energy Florida, City of New Smyrna Beach

Outages: longest among Florida's large utilities in 2025

Clay's members averaged 205 minutes without power in 2025, more than the Florida average of 70 minutes, and 2.60 interruptions per customer against 0.85 statewide. The cooperative reports under the IEEE 1366 standard, and its total excluding major event days was the same, 205 minutes: none of the reported minutes fell on days that counted as major events. Florida as a whole ranked 2nd lowest⁸ among the states on outage minutes.

Among Florida's other large utilities that also report under IEEE 1366, Tampa Electric reported 112 minutes, Withlacoochee River Electric Cooperative 105 minutes, Duke Energy Florida 87 minutes and FPL 47 minutes. City of Tallahassee Utilities (127 minutes), JEA (49 minutes) and SECO Energy (69 minutes⁸) measure by another method than IEEE 1366, so their figures are not strictly comparable.

Florida Power & Light (FL)47

Duke Energy Florida (FL)87

Withlacoochee River Electric Cooperative (FL)105

Tampa Electric (FL)112

City of Tallahassee Utilities (FL)127

Clay Electric Cooperative (FL)205

Source: EIA-861 2025, reliability. EIA-861 2025 final. Average revenue per kWh is all charges divided by kWh; it is not a tariff rate.

Show the numbers

Utility	outage minutes per customer (all events)
Florida Power & Light (FL)	47
Duke Energy Florida (FL)	87
Withlacoochee River Electric Cooperative (FL)	105
Tampa Electric (FL)	112
City of Tallahassee Utilities (FL)	127
Clay Electric Cooperative (FL)	205

These are yearly totals. Current outages are shown on the outage map on Clay Electric's own website.

Meters and rooftop solar

Advanced (AMI) meters covered 99.9% of Clay's residential meters in 2025, against 96.2%⁹ statewide; they report readings remotely and record when electricity is used.

Rooftop solar is less common on Clay's lines than in Florida overall. EIA counted 3,287 net-metered residential installations with 30.6 megawatts of capacity, 18.9 per 1,000 residential customers, against 29.9 per 1,000 for Florida, 22.4 at FPL and 57.1⁹ at Duke Energy Florida.

Business accounts and help with bills

Clay's 23,310 commercial accounts paid an average of 11.60¢ per kWh in 2025, less per kWh than residential members, with an average monthly bill of $307.97. Its 33 industrial accounts paid 7.72¢ per kWh, and across all accounts the average was 12.81¢ per kWh¹.

Florida's federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program allocation for fiscal year 2026 was $121.6 million, $13.04 per occupied household, the 2nd lowest¹⁰ among the states. For the statewide picture, see electricity in Florida.