Study - Despite Gains in Energy Efficiency and Green Energy Generation, Electricity Bills Have Increased 27% Since 2015

HOUSTON, September 4, 2024 (Newswire.com) - For many Americans, August is the hottest month of summer. And that means most families that rely on air conditioning will have to pay their highest electricity bills for the year when they come due. To learn just how much ratepayers may have to pay this year, analysts at TexasElectricityRatings.com researched EIA residential electricity data for every August from 2015 to 2023. While they discovered that increasingly hot summers have had some effect on energy bills, customers are seeing the biggest cost increases coming from their local utility companies.

The study can be found at TexasElectricityRatings.com

The study showed three important facts that all U.S. consumers need to know:

• From 2015 to 2023 August bills in all states increased by an average of nearly 27% or about $40.
• Utility rates over the same period on average rose by 23.2%.
• The average August residential kWh consumption fell during the same period by 2.83%.

The 10 states with the highest increased August bills included all the New England states; Maine seeing the highest increase at 70.6%. Texas, which has some of the highest summer electricity usage in the nation, came in at #10 with a 31.31% increase in August bills during the study period.

The state with the lowest increase for the period was New Jersey where August bills rose by only 0.24% and usage fell by 9.73%.

Perhaps the most disheartening discovery came from energy-efficient homes that managed to cut their August usage yet saw their bills rise steeply. Households that installed expensive energy-efficient improvements a decade ago in the hope of enjoying lower bills have seen them increase anyway. Still, this detail underscores the dire financial situation for less energy-efficient homes where August bills have climbed far more sharply. These households are having a harder time paying, with many now relying on relief programs for help.

To help ratepayers prepare for the coming electric bill sticker shock, researchers used EIA Short Term Energy Outlook rate predictions for U.S. Census regions. They then applied the median August consumption data for the study period to estimate average 2024 August electricity bills.

The three U.S. regions that will likely see the highest August electricity bills are:

West South Central States $221.71
East South Central $192.53
New England  $192.11

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Source: TexasElectrictyRatings.com