• residential electricity
• business electricity
• industrial electricity

All of these tables are based on data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration for September 2009.  I hope that this is useful in your quest to find cheap electricity. Don’t forget to check out our guide to finding the cheapest electricity supplier!

• residential electricity prices
• business electricity prices
• electricity prices averaged over all sectors

All of these tables are based on data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration for September 2009. I hope that this is useful in your quest to find cheap electricity. You might also want to check out our guide to finding the cheapest electricity supplier!

• residential electricity prices
• industrial electricity prices
• electricity prices averaged over all sectors

All of these tables are based on data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration for September 2009. I hope that this is useful in your quest to find cheap electricity. Please also see our advice on finding the cheapest electricity supplier!

• business electricity prices
• industrial electricity prices
• electricity prices averaged across all sectors

All of these tables are based on data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration for September 2009. I hope that this is useful in your quest to find cheap electricity. You may also wish to look at our guide to finding the cheapest electricity supplier!

As an example, Southern California Edison (SCE) has a number of demand response programs:

• Agricultural and Pumping Interruptible Program: For business customers with demand of at least 35 kW or a pumping motor of at least 50 horsepower; provides a year-round monthly bill credit to customers willing to interrupt power usage at SCE’s request.
• Automated Demand Response: For customers with at least 200 kW of energy demand and an Energy Management System (EMS); provides up to $300/kW of verified load reduction, controlled automatically by an EMS.
• Capacity Bidding Program: For business customers not participating in any other demand response program; provides both capacity (per kW) and energy (per kWh) credits for the amount of load reduction bid each month, with no penalties but varying payments depending on the percentage of the commitment met each month, and day-ahead or day-of notification of events.
• Critical Peak Pricing: For business customers with demands over 200 kW; provides lower off-peak electricity rates in exchange for very high electricity rates during critical peak events called a day ahead by SCE, which produce savings if demand can be reduced during these events.
• Demand Bidding Program: For business customers with demands over 200 kW; provides bill credits of $0.60/kWh during day-of events and $0.50/kWh during day-ahead events for energy reductions within 50% to 200% of the power reduction bid for that event, with no penalties for not fulfilling on the bid.
• Optional Binding Mandatory Curtailment Program: For customers who can independently or in aggregate reduce their entire circuit’s load by up to 15%, in increments of 5%, during every rotating outage; exempts participating customers from having power cut off during rotating outages in exchange for this partial reduction during all rotating outages.
• Real-Time Pricing: For customers with demands over 500 kW; provides electricity prices that vary based on the time of day, season, and temperature, which produce savings if demand can be reduced when prices are high.
• Scheduled Load Reduction Program: For customers with energy demand of at least 100 kW, willing to commit to reducing at least 15% of their maximum demand (and at least 100 kW) for each hour during pre-scheduled days and times; provides a bill credit per kWh of qualified load drop.
• Summer Discount Plan: For business or residential customers who allow SCE to install a remote-controlled device that enables SCE to turn off or cycle off and on their air conditioner’s compressor during an energy emergency; provides an electric bill credit during summer months that depends on the plan chosen and the size of the air conditioner.
• Time of Use Base Interruptible Program: For customers with energy demand greater than 200 kW, willing to commit to reducing at least 15% of their demand (and at least 100 kW) with 15 or 30 minutes advance notification; provides a monthly credit based on the difference between their average peak period demand and the demand they commit to reduce to during events, with penalties for not meeting this commitment.

Typically, business electricity suppliers provide more options for participating in demand response programs, but some programs are open to residential electricity customers as well.  Contact your electricity supplier to find out if you are eligible to participate in programs that could help you  in your quest for cheap electricity.

To begin with, here is a list of states that are have deregulated electricity markets:

• Connecticut
• Delaware
• District of Columbia
• Illinois
• Maine
• Maryland
• Massachusetts
• Michigan
• New Hampshire
• New Jersey
• New York
• Ohio
• Pennsylvania
• Rhode Island
• Texas

Next, here is a list of questions that you may want to ask a potential electricity supplier to help you decide if they are right for you, grouped into a number of categories.  Note that these have been compiled from a variety of state electricity consumer guides.

Pricing

• What is the price per kilowatt-hour?
• What does that price include?
• Does this rate include everything, including the electricity cost, the transmission and distribution charges, fuel charges, if any, as well as the monthly customer charge or other fees?
• Does your price include sales tax?
• Are there any other taxes, charges or fees included in your price?
• Do you have any built-in monthly customer service fees or other fees?
• Do you have any built-in price increases or decreases?
• What is the total price for, say, 500 kWh of electricity usage?
• Are the energy prices fixed, or will they change from month to month?
• If it is a fixed rate, for how long does the rate stay fixed?
• If it is a fixed rate, is it guaranteed?
• If your price varies, does it vary by amount of usage, by time of day or month, both, or by other factors?
• Are there other charges that could change during the term of the agreement?
• Is there more than one rate plan to choose from?
• How long is your price offer valid?

Terms

• What is the length of the agreement/term of the contract?
• Are there any early termination fees associated with the contract?
• What happens if I move outside the service territory during the contract term?
• What happens when my contract period expires?
• Are there any other terms in the agreement?
• Can I review your standard contract before I receive your price offer?
• Whom can I call with questions about my contract?

Enrollment

• What steps are necessary to enroll?
• Will there be a credit check performed?
• Is a deposit required and if so, how much?
• What steps must I take if I want to change suppliers or return to supply service with the utility?
• What will be the date my service starts? When will I receive my first bill?
• Will there be switching, membership or other fees?
• Is there a customer incentive for signing up?

Billing

• How will I be billed? Who provides the bill (or bills)?
• Can I pay one consolidated bill for both my energy supplies and the delivery service, or must I pay separate bills to my energy supplier and my distribution utility?
• Am I able to participate in different bill plans such as budget billing or deferred payment arrangements?
• What options are available for bill payments? Can I receive and pay my bill on-line, or pay by credit card or check by phone?
• If I do not pay my bill in full, what collection activity will occur and when?
• Are there minimum bill amounts?

Service

• Will notices that are required by law (disconnection, tree-trimming, claims, etc.) be sent to me if the bill is not provided by the utility?
• Does the supplier have a customer service center, website, or toll-free number?
• What are the Customer Service hours and phone number?

Other

• Are you certified/licensed by the public utilities commission (or other appropriate body for your state)?
• What are your generation sources?
• Are environmentally-friendly generation sources such as solar, wind, or hydro power available?
• Am I a member of a group that has a program in place to purchase energy together to increase buying power?

Now that you know if your state provides you with choice in electricity suppliers, and you know what questions to ask those suppliers, go forth in your quest for cheap electricity!

First of all, one of the things that the smart grid is designed to do is to make it easier for information to flow between utilities and customers.  That can help the utility by giving them warnings about possible problems on the power grid before they occur, so they don’t need to wait for customers to call them to find out about outages, and so on.  More relevant for those of you interested in cheap electricity, it will also allow the utility to send information to customers about changes in electricity prices, so that you can choose to use electricity when it is cheap and not so much when it is expensive, and thus reduce your electricity bill.

Now, you might ask, why would electricity prices change?  Aren’t they usually the same all of the time?  Yes, that is true for most customers today, but it turns out that the value of electricity is different depending on the time of day, and also depending on the season.  This is mostly due to changes in demand; both residential and business electricity customers tend to use more electricity during the day, particularly during the summer when they are running their air conditioners, and less during the night and on winter days.  These changes in the value of electricity can be seen in changes in electricity prices in wholesale markets, where electricity is traded between electricity generators and electricity suppliers who then sell the electricity to end users.  Today, without the smart grid, end users don’t see these variations in electricity prices, but someday we will be able to use this information about varying electricity prices to make smart choices about when we use electricity.  This will tend to ease the strain on electricity supplies at times of peak electricity demand, because people will have incentive to turn down their electricity use as the price goes up.  And, as a cheap electricity afficionado, having the opportunity to save money on electricity by choosing to use it when it is cheaper probably sounds pretty good!

At the moment, the smart grid is just in the process of being created, because a lot of infrastructure needs to be put in place before all of this communication between electric companies and consumers can occur.  However, the federal government has recently invested $3.4 billion to spur development of the smart grid in the United States, and we should start to see it go live, at least in some places, over the next few years.  Already, some big players in the information technology space (and some not-so-large players) are beginning to introduce tools that will be useful once pieces of the smart grid start to fall into place.  These include electricity usage monitoring tools like Google Power Meter and Microsoft Hohm.  These generally require a partnership with your current utility, and mostly are not functional yet, but you can keep an eye on these links to see when they might go live for you.

If you’re interested in saving money on electricity, please also take a look at our guide to finding the cheapest electricity supplier!

The state with the cheapest electricity, averaged over all sectors, is Wyoming. I would love to attribute the low electricity prices to its abundant wind energy resources, but the truth is that the low prices there are mostly due to the abundance of cheap coal, which is used to produce 95% of Wyoming’s electricity. Ditto for numbers 3 through 5 on the list, West Virginia, Kentucky, and North Dakota, which all get at least 93% of their electricity from coal. As a huge advocate for renewable energy, I’m starting to get depressed by this list!

Things get a bit better when we look at number 2, Idaho, which gets 79% of its electricity from hydropower, and less than 1% from coal. It is true that abundant hydropower resources also tend to result in cheap electricity prices, so, if you want cheap power from a renewable energy source, look for a state with lots of hydropower. Other examples are Washington (6th cheapest electricity, 74% from hydropower), South Dakota (10th cheapest, 48% from hydropower), and Oregon (14th cheapest, 61% from hydropower).

However, it is true that the rest of the top 15 have coal as their largest electricity source, with one exception: Louisiana. Louisiana gets only 25% of its electricity from coal, while 47% comes from natural gas and 18% comes from nuclear power. I can’t explain why Louisiana has such cheap electricity, but I can say that natural gas has a smaller carbon footprint per kilowatt-hour of electricity, which is a plus for those of you who care about global warming!

Before we leave the subject of electricity prices by state, let’s consider which states have the most expensive electricity. On the top of that list is Hawaii, which produces 77% of its electricity from very expensive, imported petroleum. I grew up in Hawaii, and I promise you that it is a beautiful place to live, but don’t go looking for cheap electricity (or anything else cheap, for that matter) there! Besides Hawaii, a lot of states in the Northeast have relatively expensive electricity; they tend to get a small percentage of their electricity from coal, and more from natural gas or nuclear power. Alaska (6th most expensive) and California (10th most expensive) also have relatively expensive electricity, with most coming from natural gas. I am not saying that high electricity prices are a bad thing, but, if your goal is to find cheap electricity, these are not the states that you want to move to.