The Electric Bill Is Becoming an Affordability Test — Is America Better Yet?

By Roberto Zapatero
Is America Better Yet?
Updated August 16, 2026

You can stop eating out.

You can cancel a streaming service.

You can put off buying clothes.

Electricity is different.

Most of us need it every day. It keeps food cold, lights rooms, charges phones, runs appliances, powers computers, heats water and, in much of the country, keeps homes cool or warm enough to live in.

And it is getting more expensive.

The latest monthly figures available from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, or EIA, cover May 2026. The average residential price was 18.44 cents per kilowatt-hour, 6.2% higher than one year earlier. Residential customers had the largest percentage increase of any major customer group. Forty-four states and the District of Columbia recorded higher average revenue per kilowatt-hour than in May 2025.

EIA's August forecast puts the average residential price for all of 2026 at about 18.3 cents per kilowatt-hour, compared with 17.3 cents in 2025 and 16.5 cents in 2024. That is an increase of nearly 11% in the published national average in two years.

But those national numbers leave out one of the most important parts of the story:

There is no single American electric bill.

The Rate Is Only Part of the Bill

Suppose two people pay the same price for each kilowatt-hour of electricity.

One lives in a small apartment.

The other lives in a detached house.

One lives in a mild climate.

The other lives where air conditioning runs for months.

One heats with natural gas.

The other uses an electric heat pump.

Their electric bills can look completely different.

That means we cannot call one state "cheap" or another state "expensive" simply by comparing electricity rates.

We also have to ask how much electricity people use and why.

Where You Live Changes What You Need

Climate matters.

In a hot, dry part of the country, some homes can use evaporative cooling, often called a swamp cooler. Department of Energy guidance describes evaporative coolers as an effective alternative to compressor-based air conditioning in dry climates and says they can use substantially less electricity than central air conditioning.

That same approach is poorly suited to a humid climate.

In much of the South, air conditioning must remove both heat and moisture. Central air conditioners and heat pumps use electricity to do that, and long hot seasons can keep them running for much of the year.

Housing matters too.

An older house with poor insulation, leaky windows or an inefficient heating and cooling system may need far more energy than a newer or better-insulated home.

A renter may have little power to change any of those things.

The Department of Energy's energy-affordability data specifically identifies building age, building type, renter versus owner status and primary heating fuel as factors that can be examined when measuring household energy costs.

Heating Can Hide Part of the Cost

An electric bill also does not necessarily show the full cost of keeping a home comfortable.

In 2024, about 47% of U.S. households used natural gas as their main space-heating fuel and 42% used electricity, according to Census data reported by EIA. Propane, heating oil and wood remain more common in some colder areas.

That creates an important difference.

A home with a gas furnace may show a lower winter electric bill because much of its heating expense appears on the gas bill.

A home with electric heat may put much more of the winter heating cost onto the electric bill.

So when we compare what people are paying, we have to distinguish between:

the electric bill and the total cost of energy used in the home.

Otherwise, we could mistakenly call one household's energy costs low simply because part of the cost appears on another bill.

What Makes Up Your Electricity?

Another difference is what produces the electricity in the first place.

The nation's electric system uses natural gas, nuclear power, coal, hydroelectric power, wind, solar and other sources. The mixture can vary greatly from state to state and even among utilities.

Some utilities generate much of their own electricity. Others buy power from other utilities, independent producers or wholesale markets.

That generation mix matters because fuel prices, power-plant costs and decisions to build or retire generating capacity can affect what utilities spend.

But there is an important caution:

A state using more coal, natural gas, nuclear power or renewable energy does not automatically mean its residents will have higher or lower bills.

The final price also depends on infrastructure, financing, regulation, weather, demand, utility structure and many other costs.

And Demand Is Growing

For years, U.S. electricity demand changed relatively slowly.

That has changed.

EIA's 2026 long-term outlook says data-center demand is emerging as the leading driver of long-term growth in U.S. electricity consumption. The agency says national electricity demand has grown about 2.1% per year over the past five years and projects continued growth under its various scenarios.

That raises a question that deserves close attention:

When utilities build new power plants, transmission lines, substations and other equipment to serve major new users, who pays for it?

We should not assume the answer.

A data center's arrival does not prove that it caused a residential rate increase.

That connection has to be established through utility filings, regulatory decisions, grid planning documents or other evidence.

In some places, data centers may be an important factor.

In others, higher bills may be driven by fuel prices, storms, wildfire protection, aging infrastructure, debt, new generation, transmission costs or several factors at once.

We will follow the evidence state by state.

Who Owns Your Utility Matters

Not every American receives electricity from the same kind of company.

Electricity can be delivered by a private investor-owned utility, a city or other public utility, an electric cooperative owned by its members, or another government or power authority. Some states also allow customers to select competing electricity suppliers.

Those differences matter because they affect who makes decisions and where the public can challenge them.

EIA says retail electricity charges are based primarily on rates approved by state regulators, although some states have competitive retail suppliers offering market-based prices.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, or FERC, has a different role. It generally oversees interstate transmission and wholesale electricity markets. FERC says the electricity purchase between a customer and a utility is a retail transaction overseen by state and local regulators.

So if your bill rises, one of the first questions should be:

Who approved the increase?

What Are You Getting for the Money?

Price alone is still not enough.

Reliability matters.

A customer paying a high monthly bill for dependable service is in a different position from someone paying a high bill while also experiencing repeated or lengthy outages.

EIA tracks reliability by state, including how often customers lose power and how long interruptions last. Its most recent complete state reliability data cover 2024.

FERC now presents electricity cost and reliability together in its consumer information because both help describe the service customers receive.

That belongs in our state comparisons too.

The Same Bill Hurts Some People More

A $20 increase does not mean the same thing to everyone.

For someone living alone, the entire bill may come from one paycheck, retirement check or benefit payment.

For a household supporting several people, electricity competes with food, housing, transportation, health care and other expenses.

For a person who works from home, stays home because of age or disability, or depends on electrically powered medical equipment, simply reducing electricity use may not be realistic.

Income changes the picture dramatically.

The Department of Energy defines "energy burden" as the percentage of household income spent on home energy.

Its current Low-Income Energy Affordability Data tool estimates that low-income households spend an average of about 6% of income on home energy, three times the estimated 2% burden for households that are not low-income. In some places and income groups, the burden is far higher.

The same federal data estimate that 52% of low-income households are renters.

That can create a trap.

The person paying the electric bill may not own the air conditioner, furnace, windows, insulation or building. The landlord may control the equipment, while the tenant pays the cost of operating it.

Help Exists, but It Varies by State

The federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP, helps eligible households with energy costs, but eligibility requirements vary by state and territory.

The Department of Energy's Weatherization Assistance Program also helps eligible lower-income households reduce energy costs through improvements to the home.

Those programs can help some people.

They do not answer the larger question of why electricity is becoming more expensive.

What We Need to Know in Every State

A useful comparison cannot simply rank states by cents per kilowatt-hour.

For each state, we need to examine:

Residential electricity price
Typical residential electricity use
Typical monthly bill
Climate
Common cooling systems
Main heating fuels
Total household energy costs
Electricity generation mix
Utility ownership and market structure
Fixed fees and other bill charges
Who regulates rates
Recent and pending rate increases
Documented reasons for those increases
Energy burden
Assistance available to residents
Reliability and outages
Major future cost pressures, including data centers where the evidence supports a connection

That gives readers something much more useful than a list of expensive and inexpensive states.

It tells them why their bill looks the way it does.

The Average Does Not Tell You What Your Home Should Cost

State averages are useful.

They show trends.

They let us compare one place with another.

But an average cannot tell you what your particular household should be paying.

A person living alone in a small apartment is not the same as a household cooling a large home through a humid Southern summer.

A desert home using an evaporative cooler is not the same as a home relying on central refrigerated air.

A home heated with natural gas is not directly comparable with one using electric resistance heat or a heat pump.

A renter in an old building may have fewer ways to cut consumption than a homeowner who can replace equipment or add insulation.

The average is the beginning of the investigation.

It is not the answer.

Look at the Bill Differently

The next time the electric bill arrives, the total amount is only one number worth looking at.

Ask:

How much electricity did I use?

What am I paying for each kilowatt-hour?

What fixed charges or adjustments were added?

Did the rate change?

Who approved it?

What reason was given?

Is my usage changing, or is the price changing?

What costs are coming next?

Those questions move the electric bill out of the background.

They turn it into a record of decisions made by utilities, regulators, governments and markets.

For a person living alone, a family supporting children, an older adult, a renter, a homeowner or anyone living on a limited income, the result arrives in the same place:

the monthly budget.

Electricity is not optional for modern life.

That makes its price an affordability issue.

And it gives us one question to carry into every state:

What is driving the cost of keeping the lights on where you live, and who has been asked to pay for it?

Is America Better Yet? will keep following that answer.

Sources

U.S. Energy Information Administration, Electricity Monthly Update, May 2026. Latest residential price, year-over-year change and state comparisons.
U.S. Energy Information Administration, Short-Term Energy Outlook, August 2026. Residential electricity-price forecasts.
U.S. Energy Information Administration, Annual Energy Outlook 2026. Electricity demand and data-center growth.
U.S. Energy Information Administration, Residential Energy Consumption Survey and analysis of residential heating fuels.
U.S. Energy Information Administration, Delivery to Consumers. Utility ownership, generation and electricity delivery.
U.S. Energy Information Administration, Electric Power Annual. State electricity reliability data.
U.S. Department of Energy, Low-Income Energy Affordability Data Tool. Household energy burden, housing and renter data.
U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Renovations: HVAC. Climate and residential cooling systems.
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, An Introductory Guide to Electricity Markets. Federal, state and local regulatory responsibilities.
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, consumer power cost and reliability information.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program resources.
U.S. Department of Energy, Weatherization Assistance Program.

I write for you,

— Roberto

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