U.S. residential electric rates jumped 33% between 2019 and 2025, according to a 2026 update released this month by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to an influential journal article on retail electricity pricing. Commercial rates climbed 26% and industrial rates rose 27% over the same period, widening the gap between what homeowners pay and what businesses are charged. The report, prepared by The Brattle Group for LBNL, found that electric rates increased 2.6% from 2024 to 2025 after adjusting for inflation, even as total electric bills as a fraction of household income remain near all-time lows.
The price increases varied dramatically by region. California and northeastern states saw the steepest climbs over the past seven years, with California's retail rates jumping more than 6 cents per kilowatt-hour from 2019 to 2025 after adjusting for inflation. Maine's rates rose more than 4 cents per kilowatt-hour, while New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maryland, Connecticut, and Rhode Island all saw increases exceeding 2 cents per kilowatt-hour. Despite the sharp increases since 2019, inflation-adjusted national average retail electricity prices are actually 6% lower than they were in 2010 and only 3% higher than in 2019. While residential electricity pricing outpaced overall inflation, it rose more slowly than residential natural gas rates.
The burden of rising bills falls unevenly across income levels. One-third of households earning less than $50,000 per year now pay at least 5% of their income toward electricity, according to the report. Bill burdens have increased in 27 states and Washington, D.C. over the past seven years, with the District of Columbia, Pennsylvania, California, and Maryland posting the biggest increases. From 2019 to 2025, bill burdens decreased in 23 states, with the largest declines in Georgia, Tennessee, Iowa, Montana, and South Carolina, though bills have risen as a share of income since 2023, particularly for the bottom 20% of earners.
The report identifies transmission and distribution system spending as a major driver of rate inflation, particularly in California where wildfire mitigation efforts have pushed infrastructure costs higher. Reductions in retail sales magnified price increases for customers in California, New York, and New England, regions that have seen significant growth in behind-the-meter solar and battery capacity since 2019. California now has about 20.5 gigawatts of distributed solar capacity, more than 40% of the California Independent System Operator's anticipated peak load this summer. In Maine, multiple factors pushed prices higher in 2025, including cost recovery from infrastructure repairs following damaging storms in 2024, net billing compensation for subscribers to the state's fast-growing community solar program, and higher wholesale power costs driven by natural gas prices. Some states saw relief from localized factors: Hawaii ratepayers benefited from fuel oil supply contracts updated to reflect lower global oil prices, while new federal tax credits for existing nuclear reactors lowered generation costs in North Carolina.
Utility rate hike requests reached $18 billion in 2025, higher than they've been in decades. State regulators approved 64% of the dollar value of electric utilities' revenue increase requests between 2021 and 2025, which the report says "suggest[s] additional near-term price increases absent policy/market actions." The data points to continued upward pressure on rates even as electric bills remain historically affordable relative to household income, creating a tension between infrastructure investment needs and affordability concerns for the lowest-earning Americans.