Electricity costs when moving to another state: compare the bill, not the rate

The short answer: look at bills, then at your own kWh

The question most people moving ask is whether their electric bill will go up or down. The best first answer is the average monthly residential bill in each state, calculated from EIA data as residential revenue divided by the number of residential customers. Over the last 12 months (September 2025 to August 2026), the US average was $157.84 a month. The highest averages were in Hawaii ($227.70), Maryland ($202.30) and Connecticut ($192.61); the lowest in New Mexico ($99.89), Utah ($104.09) and Colorado ($112.79¹). Monthly figures since January 2026 are preliminary.

A state average describes the average home in that state, not yours. The average home in a hot Southern state runs air conditioning for months and often heats with electricity; the average home in the Northeast or California uses far fewer kWh. Your own bill after a move is your own kWh in the new climate times the price your new utility charges. The sections below show how each part shifts when you cross a state line.

Why moving to a cheaper state can raise the bill

The price per kWh and the bill rank states in different orders. The price used here is the average price residential customers paid: total residential revenue divided by kWh sold, which includes fixed charges and fuel adjustments and excludes most taxes. It is not a tariff, but it is the measure EIA publishes for every state.

Over the last 12 months, California had the 2nd highest residential average among the states and DC and New York the 6th highest. Their homes also used little: 507 kWh a month in California (51st of 51 counted from the highest) and 586 kWh in New York. Texas and Florida sit near the middle on price (25th of 51 and 29th of 51 counted from the highest) but near the top on use: Texas homes used 1,114 kWh a month, the 5th highest, and Florida homes 1,097 kWh, the 7th highest. The result in the same 12 months: a Florida bill of $168.99 against $167.67 in New York, and a Texas bill of $178.09 against $163.90¹ in California.

Going the other way works the same: a move from a low-price, high-use state to California or New York tends to raise the price per kWh far more than the bill. Utah and Colorado show a third pattern. They had residential averages 26.5% below the US average and 7.9% below the US average over the last 12 months, and their homes used moderate amounts (785 kWh and 679 kWh¹ a month), so both the price and the bill came out low.

Air conditioning and electric heat move with you

Two features of the destination change your kWh whatever appliances you bring: how hot the summers are and whether homes heat with electricity.

Cooling demand is measured in cooling degree days: how far, summed day by day, the average daily temperature sits above 65°F. Over 2016 to 2025, Florida averaged 3,429 cooling degree days a year, Texas 2,931 and Arizona 2,655, against 678 in New York and 1,019⁴ in California. A household that rarely ran air conditioning in the Northeast or coastal California should expect several months of heavy cooling after moving south.

Heating is the other switch. In the Census Bureau's 2025 American Community Survey, 89.4% of Florida households heated mainly with electricity (1st of 51 counted from the highest) and 66.1% in North Carolina, against 17.6% in New York and 41.8%³ nationally. A move from a gas-heated home to an electrically heated one shifts the heating cost onto the electric bill, while the gas bill shrinks or disappears; compare the two utility bills together, not the electric bill alone. Electric heat also changes when the bill peaks: over the last 12 months, North Carolina homes used the most in January 2026 (1,351 kWh¹), not in summer. Survey shares are estimates with margins of error.

The first bills depend on when you arrive

A household that arrives in summer in a hot state will see its highest bills first. Over the last 12 months, the average Arizona home used 1,789 kWh in August 2026 and 636 kWh in February 2026, 2.8 times as much in the peak month. In August 2026, the average Arizona residential bill was $269.26, while the 12-month average was $162.13¹. Those monthly figures are preliminary.

1,301Sep

867Oct

690Nov

718Dec

755Jan

636Feb

859Mar

824Apr

1,055May

1,445Jun

1,711Jul

1,789Aug

Source: EIA, Electric Power Monthly / EIA-861M sales and revenue by state. Residential kWh sold per customer in each month. The table adds that month's average residential price. Monthly EIA data through August 2026 (released October 23, 2026); months since January 2026 are preliminary.

Show the numbers

Month	kWh per customer	Residential ¢/kWh
September 2025	1,301	15.26¢
October 2025	867	15.55¢
November 2025	690	15.66¢
December 2025	718	15.46¢
January 2026	755	15.61¢
February 2026	636	16.03¢
March 2026	859	15.61¢
April 2026	824	15.48¢
May 2026	1,055	15.23¢
June 2026	1,445	15.18¢
July 2026	1,711	15.38¢
August 2026	1,789	15.05¢

The same pattern holds, less sharply, elsewhere in the South: in August 2026 the average bill was $265.58 in Texas and $217.28 in Florida, against 12-month averages of $178.09 and $168.99¹. Judge the new home over a full year. If the seller or landlord can share 12 months of usage, that is a better guide than any state average.

Your address picks the utility, and utilities differ a lot

There is no such thing as a city electricity price in EIA data. Each address is served by one distribution utility, and utilities in the same state can be far apart. In 2025, among New York utilities with 10,000 or more bundled residential customers, the average price ranged from 7.80¢ per kWh at Village of Fairport to 36.74¢ per kWh at Con Edison, a spread of 28.94¢ per kWh. On the same basis, the California range ran from 17.40¢ per kWh at Turlock Irrigation District to 45.77¢ per kWh⁵ at SDG&E. A move across town can change the price as much as a move between states.

Ownership type is one visible pattern. Nationally in 2025, bundled residential customers of investor-owned utilities paid an average of 17.78¢ per kWh, of electric cooperatives 14.10¢ per kWh and of public power utilities (municipal utilities, public power districts and state authorities) 14.49¢ per kWh⁵. Each state page lists the utilities serving every county; the utility's own service map confirms which one serves a given address.

In some states you also choose who sells the power

In 15⁵ of the 50 states and DC, at least 1% of residential customers buy electricity from a competitive supplier, a community choice aggregator (CCA) or, in Texas, a retail electric provider. The local utility still delivers the power and handles outages. In most of these states a new customer who does nothing gets the utility's default service, and where a community choice aggregator operates, new customers are usually enrolled in it unless they opt out. Check the retail choice guides for each state's official comparison site.

Texas works differently. In the competitive area there is no default service: you pick a retail electric provider before service starts, through the state commission's Power to Choose site or directly with a provider. In 2025, 55.5%⁵ of Texas residential customers bought from a retail provider. Customers of city utilities and many cooperatives buy from that utility instead; the Texas retail choice guide explains who is in which group. The averages EIA publishes for retail providers are past averages across all plans, not offers.

Prices at the destination are moving too

A state's average from a year ago may already be out of date. The US residential average over the last 12 months was 18.04¢ per kWh, +6.5% against the 12 months before, and some places rose far faster. The largest rise over that period was in the District of Columbia (+19.8%¹). The price increase ranking shows every state. Looking ahead, EIA's November 2026 Short-Term Energy Outlook forecasts a US residential average of 18.68¢ per kWh in 2027, +2.8%⁶ on its 2026 estimate; that forecast is national and says nothing about any one utility.

Estimating your new bill in five steps

1. Collect 12 months of kWh from your current bills; most bills print a usage history.
2. Find the utility for the new address on the destination's state page, then look up its average price and bill on the utility's page where it has one, or the state average where it does not.
3. Adjust your kWh for the new climate and heating: more if you are moving to a hotter state or into an electrically heated home, fewer if the reverse. The state ranking of use per home shows the averages.
4. Multiply by the new utility's average price, or enter the numbers in the bill calculator, and compare states side by side with the compare tool.
5. Before move-in, start service with the utility (or, in a choice area, a supplier or retail provider), ask about deposits, and set a stop date at the old address. If the new bills are hard to pay, help paying your electric bill lists LIHEAP and utility programs in every state.