Why electricity price rankings disagree

The same data, three answers

Ask which state has the cheapest electricity and the answer depends on the period you pick, even when everyone uses EIA's own numbers:

• The latest month (August 2026): Nevada, at 12.72¢ per kWh.
• The last 12 months (September 2025 to August 2026): North Dakota, at 12.35¢ per kWh¹.
• The last full year (2025): North Dakota, at 11.82¢ per kWh, with Idaho a hair behind at 11.83¢ per kWh².

Sites that refresh their table each month with EIA's newest Electric Power Monthly report a new "cheapest state" whenever the season shifts. From September 2024 to August 2026, the state with the lowest residential price changed among Louisiana, Nebraska, Idaho, North Dakota and Nevada; North Dakota held the spot in 10 of those 24 months, Nevada in 2¹.

Why a month moves the order

Two things change from month to month: how much electricity a home uses, and how the price per kWh responds to it.

Fixed charges are spread over more or fewer kWh. Most tariffs include a monthly customer charge. In a month of very heavy use, that charge is divided over many more kWh, so the average price per kWh falls even if no rate changed. That is Nevada's pattern: its residential average was lowest in August 2026 (12.72¢ per kWh) and highest in February 2026 (14.38¢ per kWh¹), when homes use far less.

Some tariffs charge more in summer. Where utilities use seasonal rates, the price per kWh rises in the cooling season. Iowa's residential average went from 12.48¢ per kWh in December 2025 to 17.06¢ per kWh in August 2026. In the latest month's ranking Iowa placed 29th from the bottom; over 12 months it placed 14th¹.

Put together, the order of states in one month can be quite different from the order over a year. Comparing August 2026 with the last 12 months, 11 states move five or more places and 2 move ten or more. The largest movers were Iowa (29th in the month, 14th over 12 months), Missouri (24th against 12th) and Montana (19th against 10th), all three looking more expensive in August 2026 than over the year, and Florida, which looked cheaper (15th against 23rd¹).

Source: EIA, Electric Power Monthly / EIA-861M sales and revenue by state. Each dot is a state (horizontal: Residential ¢/kWh, 12 months; vertical: Residential ¢/kWh, latest month). Residential revenue divided by kilowatt-hours sold over the 12 months 2025-09 to 2026-08 (EIA-861M; months since January 2026 preliminary). Average revenue per kWh, all charges included; not a tariff. Period: September 2025 to August 2026. Residential average revenue per kWh in the single month 2026-08 (preliminary). Seasonal: compare with the same month a year earlier. Period: August 2026.

Show the numbers

State	Residential ¢/kWh, 12 months	Residential ¢/kWh, latest month
North Dakota	12.35¢	13.31¢
Nebraska	12.74¢	13.54¢
Idaho	12.77¢	13.37¢
Louisiana	13.02¢	12.87¢
Utah	13.26¢	13.31¢
Nevada	13.45¢	12.72¢
Arkansas	13.57¢	14.37¢
Tennessee	13.61¢	13.42¢
Oklahoma	13.81¢	14.82¢
Kentucky	13.94¢	13.80¢
Montana	13.94¢	15.57¢
Missouri	13.97¢	16.02¢
Wyoming	14.01¢	14.43¢
Iowa	14.20¢	17.06¢
Washington	14.20¢	14.63¢
South Dakota	14.28¢	15.15¢
North Carolina	14.79¢	14.95¢
Mississippi	14.85¢	14.43¢
Kansas	15.13¢	15.47¢
Georgia	15.17¢	15.90¢
New Mexico	15.31¢	16.51¢
Arizona	15.39¢	15.05¢
Florida	15.41¢	14.99¢
Oregon	15.53¢	15.92¢
West Virginia	15.53¢	16.31¢
South Carolina	15.77¢	15.76¢
Texas	15.98¢	15.91¢
Minnesota	16.28¢	17.20¢
Alabama	16.44¢	16.33¢
Colorado	16.61¢	17.17¢
Virginia	16.64¢	17.64¢
Indiana	16.90¢	17.02¢
Delaware	17.98¢	18.70¢
Ohio	18.41¢	19.38¢
Wisconsin	18.79¢	19.41¢
Illinois	18.91¢	19.32¢
Pennsylvania	20.86¢	21.77¢
Maryland	21.18¢	21.40¢
Michigan	21.28¢	22.99¢
New Jersey	23.74¢	24.61¢
Vermont	23.90¢	23.84¢
District of Columbia	24.48¢	25.98¢
Alaska	26.94¢	29.41¢
New Hampshire	26.95¢	27.64¢
Connecticut	27.42¢	24.51¢
New York	28.60¢	28.65¢
Rhode Island	29.44¢	28.18¢
Maine	29.60¢	32.11¢
Massachusetts	30.39¢	30.48¢
California	32.34¢	29.75¢
Hawaii	44.27¢	47.18¢

Other reasons two tables disagree

• Stale data under a new date. A table can carry a 2020 or 2024 figure under a 2026 "updated" label, so check the data period, not the page date. EIA's latest monthly data are about eight weeks old when published, and its final annual utility data for 2025 came out on October 7, 2026.
• Supply offers presented as the rate. In states with retail choice, a supplier's energy-only offer can be shown at a high usage level. That leaves out delivery, a large share of the bill: in Pennsylvania in 2025, utilities charged shoppers 8.08¢ per kWh for delivery on top of suppliers' 12.92¢ per kWh⁴ for supply. It is not what residents pay on average.
• Tariff energy charges presented as the price. A tariff's energy rate omits fixed charges, fuel adjustments and riders. EIA's average includes everything billed.
• Different sectors. The all-sector average (14.15¢ per kWh nationally over the last 12 months) is much lower than the residential one (18.04¢ per kWh¹) because industrial customers pay less.

What it means for a household

For a budget, the useful number is a 12-month average price multiplied by your own yearly use, not the price of the month a ranking happened to be published in. If you are comparing states before a move, look at bills too: low-price states in the South often have high bills because homes there use much more electricity, while some high-price states have modest bills because homes use little. Our average bill ranking and the comparison tool put both side by side, and the bill calculator applies any state's 12-month average to your own kWh.

How we rank

Our state ranking orders states by the 12-month residential average, shows the latest month and the last full year next to it, and dates each column. The 12-month figure counts every season once, so it changes slowly and reflects what a household pays over a year. The month is still there, labelled, for anyone tracking the latest release.

Method

Prices are EIA's average revenue per kWh for residential customers by state (EIA-861M and Electric Power Monthly Table 5.6.A; months since January 2026 preliminary). The 12-month average is the sum of 12 months' revenue divided by the sum of their kWh. Ranks count from the lowest price, with ties sharing a rank. The list of states with the lowest monthly price covers the 24 months from September 2024 to August 2026.