SLEMCO electric rates and bills

What SLEMCO members paid per kWh in 2025

Southwest Louisiana Electric Membership Corporation, known as SLEMCO, is a member-owned electric cooperative serving south-central Louisiana. In 2025 it had 109,628 residential members on bundled service, enough to put it among the 6 Louisiana utilities with 100,000 or more homes. According to the annual EIA-861 survey, those members paid an average of 11.57¢ per kWh¹ that year.

That figure is average revenue per kWh: everything SLEMCO billed its residential members, divided by the kWh they used. It folds in the fixed monthly charge, the energy charge and fuel adjustments, so a member who uses little pays more per kWh than the average and a heavy user pays less. It is not a line from the tariff.

Measured that way, SLEMCO was the 7th lowest of the 16 Louisiana utilities with 10,000 or more bundled residential customers in 2025, 7.6% below the Louisiana average of 12.52¢ per kWh. The six utilities below it on that list are city-owned systems, among them Lafayette's, and smaller cooperatives; the lowest of all was City of Ruston at 5.62¢ per kWh¹.

City of Ruston5.62¢

Terrebonne Parish Consol Gov't10.73¢

Washington-St Tammany E C11.04¢

City of Alexandria11.05¢

Northeast Louisiana Power Cooperative11.20¢

City of Lafayette11.51¢

SLEMCO11.57¢

Entergy Louisiana11.90¢

South Louisiana Electric Cooperative Association12.25¢

Louisiana average12.52¢

Beauregard Electric Cooperative13.14¢

Concordia Electric Cooperative13.15¢

Entergy New Orleans13.20¢

Claiborne Electric Cooperative13.32¢

DEMCO13.53¢

SWEPCO13.85¢

Cleco Power14.26¢

Source: EIA-861 annual electric power industry report, 2025 final. Utilities with 10,000 or more bundled (full-service) residential customers. Revenue divided by kWh sold, all charges included, EIA-861 2025 final. Darker bars have their own page.

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Utility	¢/kWh
City of Ruston	5.62¢
Terrebonne Parish Consol Gov't	10.73¢
Washington-St Tammany E C	11.04¢
City of Alexandria	11.05¢
Northeast Louisiana Power Cooperative	11.20¢
City of Lafayette	11.51¢
SLEMCO	11.57¢
Entergy Louisiana	11.90¢
South Louisiana Electric Cooperative Association	12.25¢
Louisiana average	12.52¢
Beauregard Electric Cooperative	13.14¢
Concordia Electric Cooperative	13.15¢
Entergy New Orleans	13.20¢
Claiborne Electric Cooperative	13.32¢
DEMCO	13.53¢
SWEPCO	13.85¢
Cleco Power	14.26¢

SLEMCO is not in EIA's monthly EIA-861M sample, so there is no 12-month or latest-month figure for it. Statewide figures for the last 12 months (September 2025 to August 2026) exist, but they describe all Louisiana utilities together and say nothing specific about SLEMCO's 2026 prices.

A flat year while Louisiana's prices rose

Between 2024 and 2025, SLEMCO's residential average rose 0.2%¹. Every other Louisiana utility with 100,000 or more homes recorded a larger increase, and in two cases a much larger one:

All figures are bundled residential averages from EIA-861. In 2024, Entergy Louisiana's average was below SLEMCO's; in 2025, SLEMCO had the lowest average of the six. The contrast with DEMCO, Louisiana's other cooperative of this size, is the sharpest: the two started a few tenths of a cent apart and ended 2025 with DEMCO 8.1% above the Louisiana average¹ and SLEMCO below it.

The annual survey measures the size of each change, not the reason. Fuel costs, power-supply contracts and rate filings all feed into a cooperative's average, and EIA does not separate them. SLEMCO's rates are a matter for the Louisiana Public Service Commission, which states that its jurisdiction covers all the electric cooperatives in Louisiana; the commission is also where members can file a complaint. The guide to electric rate increases explains how such decisions reach a bill.

Near the bottom of the national list

Among the 177 US utilities with 100,000 or more residential customers that report a bundled price, SLEMCO's 2025 average put it 7th lowest of 177, against a median of 15.07¢ per kWh for that group. The utilities just around it were also cooperatives: Cobb EMC (Georgia) at 11.55¢ per kWh and Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative (Texas) at 11.59¢ per kWh. The lowest on the list was Magic Valley Electric Cooperative (Texas) at 10.51¢ per kWh¹.

Cooperatives as a group are not low-priced everywhere. Nationally, electric cooperatives' residential customers paid 14.10¢ per kWh in 2025, so SLEMCO was 17.9% below the national average for electric cooperatives. Louisiana's cooperatives together averaged 12.43¢ per kWh, and its investor-owned utilities 12.66¢ per kWh¹.

A low price, an above-average bill

SLEMCO members paid an average of $162.40 a month in 2025, more than Louisiana's statewide residential average of $153.32. The reason is use. Louisiana homes already used more electricity than homes in any other state (1,225 kWh³ a month in 2025), and a SLEMCO home used 1,404 kWh¹, the most among the state's six largest utilities.

Entergy New Orleans (LA)1,047

SWEPCO (LA)1,175

Entergy Louisiana (LA)1,233

Cleco Power (LA)1,245

DEMCO (LA)1,331

SLEMCO (LA)1,404

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.

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Utility	average monthly residential use
Entergy New Orleans (LA)	1,047
SWEPCO (LA)	1,175
Entergy Louisiana (LA)	1,233
Cleco Power (LA)	1,245
DEMCO (LA)	1,331
SLEMCO (LA)	1,404

High use more than cancels the price advantage against the state average. Among the large utilities, SLEMCO's average bill was close to SWEPCO's ($162.77) and below Cleco's ($177.57) and DEMCO's ($180.07), but above Entergy Louisiana's ($146.76¹), whose price per kWh was higher.

From 2024 to 2025 the SLEMCO bill changed by +2.1%, from $159.02 to $162.40. Almost all of that came from use, which rose from 1,376 kWh² to 1,404 kWh a month, not from the price. Over the same years DEMCO members' average bill changed by +14.4% and Cleco customers' +18.4%¹.

Cooling is a large part of that use. In EIA's 2020 household survey, air conditioning accounted for 28% of Louisiana household electricity, tied for 4th highest⁴ among the states, and the state averages 2,550⁵ cooling degree days a year (NOAA, 2016 to 2025). Annual averages hide the summer peak: EIA's monthly figures for Louisiana as a whole show homes using 1,763 kWh in August 2026, against 1,211 kWh⁶ a month over the last 12 months (September 2025 to August 2026, preliminary). LIHEAP, the federal energy assistance program, can help low-income households with cooling bills as well as heating; the Louisiana Housing Corporation explains how to apply through local agencies. Louisiana received $57.0 million⁷ for fiscal 2026.

Acadiana parishes, each shared with another utility

EIA's 2025 service-territory records place SLEMCO in 9 parishes: Acadia Parish, Avoyelles Parish, Cameron Parish, Evangeline Parish, Iberia Parish, Lafayette Parish, St. Landry Parish, St. Martin Parish and Vermilion Parish. In all 9⁸, at least one other distribution utility also reports customers, so SLEMCO is the sole utility in none of them.

SLEMCO onlySLEMCO and other utilitiesOther utilities

Source: EIA-861 2025, service territory; Census Bureau, Cartographic boundary file, counties. EIA-861 2025 service territory: 9 counties. Counts whole counties even where the utility serves only part of one; check the utility's own service-area map for an address.

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County	Other utilities reporting service
Acadia Parish	Entergy Louisiana, Cleco Power, City of Rayne
Avoyelles Parish	Entergy Louisiana, Cleco Power
Cameron Parish	Entergy Louisiana, Jefferson Davis Electric Cooperative
Evangeline Parish	Cleco Power, Beauregard Electric Cooperative
Iberia Parish	Entergy Louisiana, Cleco Power
Lafayette Parish	Entergy Louisiana, City of Lafayette
St. Landry Parish	Entergy Louisiana, Cleco Power
St. Martin Parish	Entergy Louisiana, Cleco Power, South Louisiana Electric Cooperative Association, City of St Martinville
Vermilion Parish	Entergy Louisiana, Cleco Power, Jefferson Davis Electric Cooperative, City of Abbeville, City of Kaplan, City of Erath, Town of Gueydan

Vermilion Parish, on SLEMCO's southern edge, has more distribution utilities reporting service than any other Louisiana parish: 8⁸. Cleco, Entergy Louisiana and city-owned systems such as Lafayette's also serve parts of SLEMCO's parishes. A parish, town or ZIP code therefore does not settle which utility serves a home, and neighbours on different systems can pay different averages; the utilities' own service maps decide by street address.

Outages: fewer minutes, more interruptions

SLEMCO members averaged 232 minutes without power in 2025 including major events, fewer than the Louisiana average of 267 minutes, and 172 minutes excluding them. They had 2.67 interruptions per customer, against 2.20¹⁰ for Louisiana. SLEMCO reports these figures using another method (not IEEE 1366), while DEMCO and the Entergy utilities follow IEEE 1366, so comparisons with them are approximate.

Meters, rooftop solar and business accounts

All of SLEMCO's residential meters were advanced meters in 2025 (100.0%). Rooftop solar is less common than at most of Louisiana's large utilities: 1,063 net-metered residential systems with 7.5 megawatts of capacity, or 9.7 per 1,000 members, against 12.3 at DEMCO and 15.8¹¹ at Entergy Louisiana.

SLEMCO's 9,122 commercial accounts paid an average of 12.97¢ per kWh in 2025, more per kWh than its homes did, with an average bill of $593.99 a month. Its 24 industrial accounts paid 10.28¢ per kWh. Across all 118,774 accounts the average was 11.70¢ per kWh¹, a figure that reflects the customer mix rather than any household's bill. For the statewide picture, see electricity in Louisiana.