Electricity Prices 13 Percent Higher This Year Than in 2022: EIA Projects

The average nationwide summer monthly bill is expected to hit $186, up 3.7 percent from last summer.

A utility crew works to restore power to houses in the Woodhaven section of the Queens borough of New York City, following a storm, on Aug. 11, 2020. Seth Wenig/AP Photo, File

Retail electricity prices, which have risen faster than the inflation rate since 2022, are expected to continue increasing this year and next, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in a May 14 statement.

Residential electricity prices are forecast to be 13 percent higher in 2025 compared with 2022. This is higher than the 11 percent growth in overall inflation predicted during this period.

Meanwhile, the prices of residential natural gas, regular gasoline, and heating oil are forecast to be cheaper in 2025 than in 2022.

“Parts of the country with relatively high electricity prices may experience greater price increases than those with relatively low electricity prices,” the agency said.

“Residential electricity prices in the Pacific, Middle Atlantic, and New England census divisions—regions where consumers already pay much more per kilowatthour for electricity—could increase more than the national average.”

Regarding output, the U.S. power sector is forecast to generate 2 percent more electricity this year than in 2024, the EIA said in its May 1 Short-Term Energy Outlook report.

Electricity from natural gas is expected to decline by 3 percent, while generation from coal plants and solar facilities is estimated to grow by 6 percent and 34 percent, respectively.

As far as the immediate summer months are concerned—June, July, and August—electricity bills are set to go higher.

The EIA is predicting the price for electricity this summer to average 17.16 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh) nationwide and the average monthly bill to hit $186, both up by 3.7 percent from summer 2024.

The highest price per kWh is expected to be in the New England region at 29.02 cents, followed by the Pacific and the Middle Atlantic.

In terms of average monthly bill, the West South Central region will rank at the top, at $224, followed by the New England and South Atlantic regions.

According to the EIA, roughly 60 percent of electricity generation in the United States in 2023 came from fossil fuels—coal, natural gas, and petroleum—21 percent from renewable sources, and 19 percent from nuclear.

“By 2025, domestic solar energy generation is expected to increase by 75 percent, and wind by 11 percent,” the Department of Energy said.

The Trump administration is looking to strengthen the United States’ energy supplies.

On March 12, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin announced that the agency will take 31 deregulatory actions to “power the great American comeback.”

This includes reconsideration of existing regulations on power plants, Mercury and Air Toxics Standards that have “improperly targeted” power plants driven by coal, regulations throttling the oil and gas sector, and the mandatory greenhouse gas reporting program.

“Today is the greatest day of deregulation our nation has seen,“ Zeldin said. ”We are driving a dagger straight into the heart of the climate change religion to drive down cost of living for American families, unleash American energy, bring auto jobs back to the U.S., and more.”

In April, President Donald Trump signed three executive orders and a presidential proclamation aimed at encouraging mining and keeping coal-fired power plants operating.

These actions ask federal agencies to identify coal resources on federal lands, lift any barriers to mining coal, and prioritize coal leasing on U.S. lands.

The United States is also a signatory to a 31-nation pledge that aims to triple nuclear power generation by 2050. The United States is currently the largest nuclear power generator in the world, housing 94 reactors across 55 power plants.