Inflation More Than Offsets 4.3% Rise in Residential Electricity Rates

“Inflation is our friend” Joe Biden? Or Dan Akroyd?

Does anyone else remember this classic Saturday Night Live skit?

I still laugh my @$$ off whenever I watch this. I have the first several seasons of SNL on DVD. They’re just as funny, if not funnier, today than when I first watched them back in my college days.

Well, reality now appears to be imitating art:

APRIL 7, 2022
U.S. residential electricity expenditures increased by $5 per month in 2021

Utility electric bills for residential customers in the United States increased by $5 per month to average $122 in 2021. Average monthly residential electricity expenditures ranged from a high of $178 per month in Hawaii to a low of $82 per month in Utah.

The 4.3% increase in 2021 was the second-largest annual increase in nominal electricity expenditures over the past decade. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index, overall consumer prices increased at the slightly higher rate of 4.7% in 2021. Residential electricity prices have tended to increase less than overall inflation measures over the past decade.

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Connecticut had the second-highest average residential utility bills, at $156 per month. This rate is typical of New England states, where electricity prices tend to be higher because constraints on natural gas pipeline capacity during peak demand periods drive up the cost of utility generation.

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Principal contributor: Alex Gorski

Tags: residential, electricity, prices, utility, states, Hawaii, Utah

EIA