States with the Most and Least Expensive Electricity

[ad_1]

PLEASE DONATE

States with the Most and Least Expensive Electricity

When an extreme winter storm tore through Texas earlier in 2021, the widespread power outages that followed put a microscope on how electricity is produced and generated. A state that prides itself on its critical role in the energy economy—both as a source of traditional fossil fuel energy sources like oil and a growing hotspot for renewables like wind and solar—had its electric grid completely crippled for days.

Stories emerged of customers being billed thousands of dollars for using the state’s limited supply of electricity in the storm’s aftermath. The situation became a flashpoint for a longer-running debate in the state (and beyond) over whether renewables or fossil fuels were a more dependable source of energy.

Despite the renewed political back and forth over energy production in the wake of the Texas storm, the overall trends in the U.S. energy sector are undeniable: renewables will be the fastest-growing contributor to electricity production in the U.S. in the decades to come. Government incentives and technological advancements in the renewable sector have lowered costs and improved reliability in recent years, and low costs will spur increased adoption of the newer technologies.

Data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration show that renewables currently represent around 21% of electricity generated in the U.S. By 2050, that figure is expected to double. Meanwhile, natural gas will decline slightly from 40% to 36% of electricity production over the same span. And the respective shares of electricity generated from nuclear and coal will be nearly cut in half.

The increased use of renewable sources will also pass on savings to consumers. The cost of electricity is also projected to decline in the next three decades, albeit gradually. The 2021 cost of electricity per kilowatt-hour currently averages around 10.5 cents across all sectors; that number will drop to 9.6 cents by 2050. And this trend will not be limited to any one sector: cost projections for electricity in the residential, commercial, industrial, and transportation sectors all show the same downward trend. Customers can expect to see a reduction in retail prices across the energy sector spectrum as the cost of electricity generation declines.

Some parts of the country could feel more of the benefit than others as costs decline. By one measure—average monthly residential electricity bill—most of those beneficiaries will be in the Southeastern U.S. The main factor driving costs in the Southeast is the greater use of electricity throughout the year compared to other regions. Warmer weather in the summer means high bills from air conditioning, and in the winter, Southeastern households are more likely to heat their homes with electricity than with other sources like natural gas or fuel oil. While these factors suggest that consumption levels will remain high, customers in the Southeast will benefit from electricity’s lower unit costs.

Another way to evaluate the different costs between states is to look at the average per kilowatt-hour cost of electricity across all sectors. On this measure, one of the key factors driving disparities between states is whether the state must import fuel or energy to supply their electricity. The most expensive states include the geographically remote Hawaii and Alaska, along with New England states that have largely retired old coal and nuclear facilities in recent years and rely on imported natural gas for electricity. In contrast, states, where electricity prices across sectors are cheap, tend to have nearby resources for electricity production, whether that be natural gas, coal, or a strong renewables sector.

To find the states with the most and least expensive electricity, researchers at Porch used information from the U.S. Energy Information Administration and ranked states based on the average electricity price for all sectors in cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh). In the event of a tie, the state with the greater residential price for electricity was ranked higher.

Here are the states with the most and least expensive electricity.

States With the Most Expensive Electricity

State	Rank	Average electricity price for all sectors	Residential price	Average monthly residential bill	Average monthly consumption
Hawaii	1	28.72¢ per kWh	32.06¢ per kWh	$168.21	525 kWh
Alaska	2	20.22¢ per kWh	22.92¢ per kWh	$127.29	555 kWh
Connecticut	3	18.66¢ per kWh	21.87¢ per kWh	$150.71	689 kWh
Rhode Island	4	18.49¢ per kWh	21.73¢ per kWh	$121.62	560 kWh
Massachusetts	5	18.40¢ per kWh	21.92¢ per kWh	$125.89	574 kWh
New Hampshire	6	17.15¢ per kWh	20.05¢ per kWh	$120.04	599 kWh
California	7	16.89¢ per kWh	19.15¢ per kWh	$101.92	532 kWh
Vermont	8	15.36¢ per kWh	17.71¢ per kWh	$97.18	549 kWh
New York	9	14.34¢ per kWh	17.94¢ per kWh	$103.60	577 kWh
Maine	10	14.04¢ per kWh	17.89¢ per kWh	$100.53	562 kWh
United States	–	10.54¢ per kWh	13.01¢ per kWh	$115.49	887 kWh

States With the Least Expensive Electricity

State	Rank	Average electricity price for all sectors	Residential price	Average monthly residential bill	Average monthly consumption
Louisiana	1	7.71¢ per kWh	9.80¢ per kWh	$120.70	1,232 kWh
Oklahoma	2	7.86¢ per kWh	10.21¢ per kWh	$113.93	1,116 kWh
Idaho	3	7.89¢ per kWh	9.89¢ per kWh	$93.83	949 kWh
Washington	4	8.04¢ per kWh	9.71¢ per kWh	$94.49	973 kWh
Wyoming	5	8.10¢ per kWh	11.18¢ per kWh	$96.53	864 kWh
Arkansas	6	8.22¢ per kWh	9.80¢ per kWh	$109.46	1,118 kWh
Utah	7	8.24¢ per kWh	10.40¢ per kWh	$75.63	727 kWh
West Virginia	8	8.49¢ per kWh	11.25¢ per kWh	$121.90	1,084 kWh
Texas	9	8.60¢ per kWh	11.76¢ per kWh	$134.07	1,140 kWh
Kentucky	10	8.61¢ per kWh	10.80¢ per kWh	$120.08	1,112 kWh
United States	–	10.54¢ per kWh	13.01¢ per kWh	$115.49	887 kWh

For more information, a detailed methodology, and complete results, you can find the original report on Porch’s website: https://porch.com/advice/states-with-the-most-least-expensive-electricity

The post States With the Most (and Least) Expensive Electricity appeared first on Global Trade Magazine.

[ad_2]

Source link