How to Find Your Electricity Rate
Step-by-step instructions to determine your true cost per kWh from your utility bill so you can accurately calculate appliance running costs.
In this guide
- Locate supply and delivery charges
- Calculate your energy-only rate
- Calculate your all-in effective rate
- Identify fixed fees
To find your true electricity rate, you must look at the detailed breakdown on the second page of your utility bill and add the per-kWh 'Supply' charge and the per-kWh 'Delivery' charge together.
Why finding your exact rate matters
Most people do not know what they pay for electricity. When using an energy calculator, guessing a national average (like $0.15/kWh) will yield highly inaccurate results if you actually live in a state where electricity costs $0.30/kWh. Finding your exact rate allows you to make real financial decisions.
Combine supply and delivery
The biggest mistake people make is looking at the first page of their bill, seeing a "Generation" or "Supply" rate of 8 cents per kWh, and assuming that is their total cost.
In most deregulated states, the bill is split into two halves:
- Supply: The cost to generate the electricity at the power plant.
- Delivery: The cost to transmit that electricity over the wires to your house.
To find the marginal cost of running an appliance, you must add these together. If supply is $0.08 and delivery is $0.09, your actual usage rate is $0.17 per kWh.
Calculate an effective rate
If you want to know the true "all-in" average cost of your electricity, including fixed monthly customer charges and taxes, you can calculate an effective rate.
Definitions
- Total Amount Due: The final dollar amount you must pay this month.
- Total kWh: The total kilowatt-hours consumed during the billing cycle.
Example
If your total bill is $125.40 and you used 600 kWh, your effective rate is $0.209 per kWh.
Limitations
For more information on our calculations, please read our Methodology and Disclaimer.