Guides

Why electric bills are rising in 2026 (and what you can do about it)

By Electric Bill Tracker · Updated October 2026

Electric utilities filed for roughly $31 billion in rate increases in 2025, about double the 2024 total, and another $18.6 billion in the first half of 2026. As of October 2026, 56 rate cases are pending in front of state commissions, affecting about 125 million customer accounts. If your bill went up this year, it is not your imagination and it is probably not your thermostat.

Where the money is going

Rate cases are public documents, and utilities have to say what they want the money for. Four reasons show up in nearly every filing:

1. Grid hardening and replacement. Poles, wires, substations and transformers installed in the 1960s–80s are being replaced at today’s prices. Duke Energy’s 2026 North Carolina request, for example, is mostly transmission and distribution spending.
2. Load growth from data centers and electrification. Utilities in Virginia, Georgia, Texas, Arizona and Ohio are building new generation and transmission for data-center demand. Regulators are still arguing about how much of that cost residential customers should carry.
3. Fuel and purchased power. Natural gas prices feed through to bills with a lag, usually via a separate “fuel rider” that changes once or twice a year without a full rate case. Duke’s June 2026 fuel adjustment added about $7 a month on its own.
4. Storm recovery and wildfire mitigation. Florida, the Gulf Coast and California carry multi-billion-dollar storm and wildfire costs that are recovered through surcharges lasting years.

The two numbers that matter on your bill

Every residential bill reduces to a fixed monthly charge (called a customer charge, basic service charge or, at PG&E since March 2026, a Base Services Charge) plus an energy charge per kWh. Some utilities also add demand charges or time-of-use pricing.

Rate cases change both, and the direction matters. PG&E’s 2026 redesign lowered the per-kWh rate by 3.7% while adding a $24 fixed charge. A household using 300 kWh a month pays more; one using 900 kWh pays less. That is why the bill estimator on each utility page asks for your usage instead of quoting one “average increase”.

What you can change

• Usage. The only lever that scales. Heating and cooling are 40–50% of a typical bill; water heating is 15–20%.
• Rate plan. Most utilities offer at least one alternative plan (time-of-use, electric-vehicle, budget billing). Switching is free and reversible.
• Supplier. In deregulated states (TX, OH, PA, IL, NY, MD, NJ, CT, MA, ME, NH, RI, DC, parts of MI) you can choose who supplies the energy portion. The delivery portion, set in the rate cases we track, is not shoppable.
• Rebates. Federal efficiency credits expired at the end of 2025, but state IRA programs (HEAR and HER) and utility rebates still pay for heat pumps, insulation and heat-pump water heaters in most states. Each utility page lists what we have found.
• Comment. Commissions hold public hearings on every rate case and the record shows they listen: Duke cut its 2026 North Carolina request from 18% to 9.5% after weeks of public comment.

How to read this site

Find your utility from the state list. The page shows the current average rate from federal EIA data, the rate cases we have on file with links to the docket, a history table, the estimator, and the rebates. If something is missing or wrong, tell us; every correction improves the page for the next person.