Guides
Each guide is an analysis of this site’s own priced data. Every figure in one is computed from published tariffs by the same rate engine as the state, utility and cost-to-run pages, and is dated with the data it came from.
Why is my electric bill so high? Price or use, state by state
A month's bill is its price times the kilowatt-hours used. How far the average bill moved against the year before in every state, how much of that was the price and how much the use, and which months cost most.
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Delivery and supply: the two prices inside one electricity rate
Some utilities publish the same schedule twice, once without the electricity itself. Priced side by side, the gap shows what the rest of the bill costs.
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What published electricity plans cost, state by state
Every priced residential plan from the utilities indexed in each state, compared at three levels of use — and why a kilowatt-hour usually costs less the more of them you buy.
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What electric heating adds to a bill, state by state
Survey consumption for homes heated mainly by electricity, priced as the difference it makes to a real bill on every published plan — and where a heating schedule changes the answer.
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What a bill costs before a single kilowatt-hour
Most published plans bill a fixed amount every month, whatever the meter says. Priced across every plan, it is why a light user pays more per kilowatt-hour than a heavy one on the same plan.
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The price that changes with the month
Many plans charge one price in summer and another in winter, and a household cannot shift a load between them. Read from the published schedules: which months are the dear ones, how wide the gap is, and what the same consumption costs either side of it.
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The price that changes once the meter passes a line
Most large utilities bill the first block of a month at one price and the rest at another. Read from the published bands: how big the step is, where it falls, and whether it makes a heavy household pay more per kilowatt-hour than a light one.
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What a plan charges by the hour, and what moving a kilowatt-hour is worth
Some plans price the afternoon and the night differently. Read from the published schedules: the gap between the two prices, how many hours a day the dearer one covers, and where the weekend sits.
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How much electricity a home uses, state by state, and what it pays
The federal residential survey's typical home in every state, from the lightest user to the heaviest, then priced on the published plans where the site has them — with the gap between two bills split into how much is use and how much is price.
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What uses the most electricity in a home
The federal residential survey's figure for each appliance and end use, ranked two ways — in the homes that have one, and spread across every home — with what each adds to a year's bill in the states priced here.
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Why electricity rates change, filing by filing
Utilities refile their rates, and URDB keeps the old versions. Priced version by version, the filings show how far bills have moved, how often, and when.
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Summer and winter electricity bills, state by state
What each state's households were billed, month by month: the dearest month, the cheapest, and how far apart they are, in every state and DC.
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Electricity prices this month, state by state
The latest month the federal statistics agency has published, every state set against the same month a year earlier: where prices rose, where they fell, and by how much.
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What each utility's customers paid per kilowatt-hour
Every utility with a page here, ranked on what its households were billed per kilowatt-hour, riders included — and why the cheapest rate is not always the smallest bill.
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Where households buy electricity from someone other than their utility
In a handful of states a home can buy its electricity from a retail supplier or a town-run program while the utility keeps the wires. How many do, state by state, and who sells to them.
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How home electricity prices have changed, state by state
Each state's average residential price over five years, ten, and the whole of the federal statistics agency's annual series: where it rose fastest and where it rose least.
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