Electricity Prices Since 1990: Every State, Adjusted for Inflation

Methodology and limits

• Prices: US Energy Information Administration, Form EIA-861, annual sales to ultimate customers by state and sector — residential, all providers combined (EIA-861, 1990–2024). EIA publishes the average price directly in cents/kWh; we do not recompute it. This is the same series behind our current electricity rates by state pages, extended back to 1990.
• Inflation adjustment: US Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U, US city average, all items, annual average (series CUUR0000SA0). A price from year Y is restated in 2024 dollars as price × CPI(2024) ÷ CPI(Y). CPI-U annual averages are final and are not revised.
• What an "average price" is: total residential revenue divided by kilowatt-hours sold, statewide. It blends every utility, rate class and tariff in the state, and includes delivery charges, riders and surcharges. No individual household pays exactly this number, and the state average can hide very large differences between utilities — see our utility-level ranking.
• CPI-U is a national index. Regional cost of living has diverged since 1990, so a national deflator slightly overstates the real decline in states where general prices rose faster than the national average, and understates it where they rose more slowly. We use the national index because it is the standard basis for cross-state comparison, not because regional variation is zero.
• Real terms are not the whole affordability story. This compares price to general inflation, not to household income or to how much electricity people use. A state can show a real price decline while bills still rise, because consumption grew.
• Coverage: the 51 states and DC with a complete 1990–2024series. Territories are excluded, since EIA's coverage of them does not span the full period.

Reuse: this analysis is free to cite or republish with attribution and a link to wattsimple.com/reports/electricity-price-history. The underlying data is public (EIA and BLS); the compilation, inflation adjustment and analysis are WattSimple's. The full table is available as a CSV or JSON download.