Rate or Usage: What Actually Drives Your State's Electric Bill
An electric bill is a price multiplied by a quantity, so either could explain why one state pays more than another. We correlated both against the bill across all 51 states and DC, using EIA 2024 annual figures. Only one of them explains much.
Rate vs bill
r = 0.60
Price moves the bill.
Usage vs bill
r = 0.06
Essentially no relationship.
Rate vs usage
r = -0.74
Expensive states use much less.
The finding
Consumption barely predicts the bill (r = 0.06); price does (r = 0.60). The two offset each other so strongly — expensive states use less, cheap states use more (r = −0.74) — that bills vary less between states than either rates or usage do.
Knowing a state's consumption tells you almost nothing about its bill — the correlation is 0.06, which is noise. Knowing its rate tells you a good deal. And because the two run against each other so strongly, they partly cancel: rates spread 3.7× across the country and usage spreads 2.4×, yet bills spread only 2.3×. The bill is the most equal of the three numbers.
The extremes
- Hawaii pays the highest rate in the country at 42.86¢/kWh — and also has the highest bill at $212.12, despite using 495 kWh a month, among the lowest consumption anywhere. Even severe conservation cannot offset a rate that far above average.
- North Dakota pays the cheapest rate at 11.51¢/kWh, yet its bill of $118.38 ranks #38 — not last. Cheap power invites consumption.
- Louisiana uses the most electricity in America at 1,202 kWh a month, nearly 1.4× the national average — and still lands at #22 on bills, because it pays only 11.73¢/kWh.
Where rate rank and bill rank disagree most
A positive gap means the state is cheaper on rate than its bill suggests — it uses a lot. A negative gap means the opposite.
| State | Rate | Rate rank | kWh/mo | Bill | Bill rank | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mississippi | 13.39¢ | #37 | 1,156 | $154.83 | #11 | +26 |
| Louisiana | 11.73¢ | #48 | 1,202 | $140.96 | #22 | +26 |
| Wisconsin | 17.18¢ | #16 | 645 | $110.87 | #42 | -26 |
| Illinois | 15.87¢ | #19 | 693 | $109.99 | #45 | -26 |
| Vermont | 21.90¢ | #10 | 574 | $125.66 | #35 | -25 |
| Michigan | 19.30¢ | #12 | 618 | $119.31 | #37 | -25 |
| Washington, D.C. | 17.71¢ | #15 | 639 | $113.23 | #40 | -25 |
| Minnesota | 15.45¢ | #20 | 712 | $110.06 | #44 | -24 |
| Colorado | 14.92¢ | #25 | 674 | $100.57 | #49 | -24 |
| Florida | 14.14¢ | #33 | 1,104 | $156.09 | #10 | +23 |
Every state, ranked by bill
| # | State | Rate | kWh/mo | Bill | Usage rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hawaii | 42.86¢ | 495 | $212.12 | #51 |
| 2 | Connecticut | 28.75¢ | 695 | $199.66 | #35 |
| 3 | Alabama | 15.18¢ | 1,143 | $173.50 | #4 |
| 4 | Massachusetts | 29.35¢ | 570 | $167.20 | #47 |
| 5 | Maryland | 17.86¢ | 929 | $165.87 | #23 |
| 6 | Texas | 14.94¢ | 1,096 | $163.72 | #6 |
| 7 | Rhode Island | 28.65¢ | 567 | $162.40 | #48 |
| 8 | California | 31.97¢ | 503 | $160.86 | #50 |
| 9 | Arizona | 14.91¢ | 1,075 | $160.24 | #8 |
| 10 | Florida | 14.14¢ | 1,104 | $156.09 | #5 |
| 11 | Mississippi | 13.39¢ | 1,156 | $154.83 | #2 |
| 12 | West Virginia | 15.07¢ | 1,027 | $154.76 | #15 |
| 13 | Georgia | 14.08¢ | 1,074 | $151.25 | #9 |
| 14 | Delaware | 16.57¢ | 911 | $150.87 | #24 |
| 15 | South Carolina | 14.23¢ | 1,050 | $149.51 | #10 |
| 16 | Virginia | 14.41¢ | 1,032 | $148.77 | #13 |
| 17 | Pennsylvania | 17.77¢ | 817 | $145.17 | #32 |
| 18 | New Hampshire | 23.40¢ | 619 | $144.87 | #42 |
| 19 | Alaska | 24.82¢ | 578 | $143.54 | #44 |
| 20 | North Carolina | 14.13¢ | 1,015 | $143.50 | #16 |
| 21 | Tennessee | 12.42¢ | 1,154 | $143.32 | #3 |
| 22 | Louisiana | 11.73¢ | 1,202 | $140.96 | #1 |
| 23 | New York | 24.43¢ | 571 | $139.53 | #46 |
| 24 | Nevada | 15.00¢ | 930 | $139.39 | #22 |
| 25 | Ohio | 15.99¢ | 846 | $135.16 | #30 |
| 26 | Kentucky | 12.79¢ | 1,047 | $133.81 | #12 |
| 27 | Maine | 24.29¢ | 550 | $133.60 | #49 |
| 28 | Indiana | 14.77¢ | 901 | $133.06 | #25 |
| 29 | Oklahoma | 12.24¢ | 1,079 | $132.05 | #7 |
| 30 | Oregon | 14.70¢ | 882 | $129.62 | #26 |
| 31 | Missouri | 12.91¢ | 1,001 | $129.18 | #17 |
| 32 | Arkansas | 12.32¢ | 1,048 | $129.13 | #11 |
| 33 | New Jersey | 19.34¢ | 662 | $128.13 | #38 |
| 34 | South Dakota | 12.86¢ | 994 | $127.81 | #18 |
| 35 | Vermont | 21.90¢ | 574 | $125.66 | #45 |
| 36 | Kansas | 14.15¢ | 876 | $123.90 | #27 |
| 37 | Michigan | 19.30¢ | 618 | $119.31 | #43 |
| 38 | North Dakota | 11.51¢ | 1,029 | $118.38 | #14 |
| 39 | Washington | 11.90¢ | 955 | $113.68 | #20 |
| 40 | Washington, D.C. | 17.71¢ | 639 | $113.23 | #41 |
| 41 | Iowa | 13.40¢ | 832 | $111.54 | #31 |
| 42 | Wisconsin | 17.18¢ | 645 | $110.87 | #40 |
| 43 | Nebraska | 11.53¢ | 956 | $110.28 | #19 |
| 44 | Minnesota | 15.45¢ | 712 | $110.06 | #34 |
| 45 | Illinois | 15.87¢ | 693 | $109.99 | #36 |
| 46 | Idaho | 11.52¢ | 944 | $108.73 | #21 |
| 47 | Montana | 12.66¢ | 852 | $107.91 | #29 |
| 48 | Wyoming | 12.47¢ | 863 | $107.65 | #28 |
| 49 | Colorado | 14.92¢ | 674 | $100.57 | #37 |
| 50 | Utah | 12.22¢ | 774 | $94.57 | #33 |
| 51 | New Mexico | 14.20¢ | 654 | $92.88 | #39 |
Methodology
- Data: EIA residential average price, consumption, and bill by state, 2024 annual. National averages: 16.48¢/kWh, 863 kWh/month, $142.26/month.
- Correlation: Pearson's r across all 51 jurisdictions, unweighted by population — each state counts once, so this describes states, not households. Weighting by customers would pull the result toward the large states.
- Correlation is not cause. The negative rate-usage relationship is not simply price response. Climate and heating fuel drive much of it: cheap-power states skew hot and humid with electric cooling and electric heat, while several expensive states are mild or heat with gas. Housing size and age matter too.
- Spread is the ratio of highest to lowest across states — rates 3.7×, usage 2.4×, bills 2.3×.
- Reuse: free to cite or republish with attribution and a link to this page.