From 2015 to 2021, the average state’s commercial electricity rate grew about 1% per year. Since 2021, it has grown nearly 5% per year. That acceleration has quietly repriced what inefficiency costs a facility.
Why it matters: Energy is one of the few operating costs you can’t negotiate down. If your facility runs the same lighting, monitoring, and equipment it ran ten years ago, you’re paying ~30% more for the exact same (or worse) performance. We compiled this overview to help facility and energy leaders understand how these rising rates may be quietly killing plant profitability and performance.
All historical figures below are verified U.S. Energy Information Administration data (Forms EIA-861 and EIA-861M). All forward projections are PEC’s own modeling, documented in our free downloadable 2026 Electricity Cost Analysis Workbook.
Electricity Costs Surged In 2021, And Never Stopped
Roughly three-quarters of the past decade’s rate increase happened after 2021. Averaged across all 50 states, here’s how each rate class moved:
| Rate class | 2015 (¢/kWh) | 2021 (¢/kWh) | 2025 (¢/kWh) | 10-yr change | Since 2021 |
| Residential | 13.3 | 14.3 | 17.9 | +35.1% | +25.2% |
| Commercial | 10.9 | 11.5 | 13.9 | +28.0% | +20.8% |
| Industrial | 7.9 | 8.3 | 10.3 | +30.2% | +24.7% |
| All classes | 10.7 | 11.4 | 14.1 | +31.4% | +23.6% |
The industrial story is the starkest. Industrial rates were nearly flat from 2015 to 2021 (+4.4% total over six years), then jumped nearly 25% in the three years since. For plants and heavy facilities, the era of cheap, stable power ended abruptly.
Where Rising Electricity Rates Hit Hardest: Commercial & Industrial Costs by State
Commercial electricity rates climbed in 49 of 50 states over the past decade. California and Maine lead by a large margin, with commercial rates up 68% since 2015. Following is Rhode Island (+49%) and Massachusetts (+46%). For industrial customers, the growth was even steeper: California industrial rates rose 77%, with Maine (+69%) and Rhode Island (+59%) close behind (Washington +58%).
Regionally, the Northeast saw the steepest increases of all. Commercial and industrial rates both up roughly 42% over the decade. The West followed on the industrial side (+33%), driven largely by California (+77%) and Washington (+58%). The Midwest and South rose more slowly (~20%)… but “slower” still means costs compounding faster than most facility budgets assume.
Top 10 States With the Highest Commercial Electricity Rate Increase (2015 — 2025)
| State | 2015 (¢/kWh) | 2025 (¢/kWh) | 10-yr change |
| California | 15.6 | 26.2 | +68% |
| Maine | 12.5 | 21.0 | +68% |
| Rhode Island | 15.8 | 23.6 | +49% |
| Massachusetts | 15.8 | 23.1 | +46% |
| Illinois | 9.0 | 13.1 | +45% |
| Connecticut | 16.0 | 23.2 | +45% |
| Indiana | 9.8 | 13.9 | +42% |
| New York | 15.3 | 21.0 | +38% |
| Michigan | 10.5 | 14.5 | +37% |
| Vermont | 14.5 | 19.9 | +37% |
| U.S. average (50-state mean) | 10.9 | 13.9 | +28% |
Top 10 States With the Highest Industrial Electricity Rate Increase (2015 — 2025)
| State | 2015 (¢/kWh) | 2025 (¢/kWh) | 10-yr change |
| California | 12.0 | 21.3 | +77% |
| Maine | 9.2 | 15.5 | +69% |
| Rhode Island | 13.8 | 21.9 | +59% |
| Washington | 4.4 | 6.9 | +58% |
| Illinois | 6.7 | 10.1 | +52% |
| New York | 6.3 | 9.5 | +51% |
| Maryland | 8.5 | 12.5 | +46% |
| Massachusetts | 13.6 | 19.4 | +43% |
| Connecticut | 13.0 | 18.4 | +42% |
| Oregon | 6.0 | 8.3 | +39% |
| U.S. average (50-state mean) | 7.9 | 10.3 | +30% |
No matter which state or industry class your business operates in, the ten-year trajectory is the same story. Rising electricity costs aren’t a regional problem or a one-sector problem; they’re a nationwide operating-cost reality that rewards facilities who plan for it now.
Every state’s 10-year history, current rates, and growth tier is in the full analysis. Find yours in our free electricity cost analysis workbook.
Your utility matters more than your state average
Utility-focused data also help tell a more detailed story for each state’s increase. California is a good example of this — while electricity is undoubtedly expensive across the board, PG&E saw the highest growth rate in the entire country for commercial costs, while Southern California Edison (SCE), which has the second most highest for power, less than half that growth. Two facilities in the same state can face very different rate trajectories depending on who serves them.
Among the largest utilities in each state, here are the steepest 10-year commercial and industrial increases.
(Please note that this data only runs through 2024, which is the latest publishing of EIA-861)
Utilities with the highest Commercial Rate Increases: 2015 — 2024 (Latest available Data)
| Utility | State | 2015 (¢/kWh) | 2024 (¢/kWh) | 10-yr change |
| Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) | California | 18.66 | 39.46 | 111.5% |
| Minnesota Power (ALLETE) | Minnesota | 7.86 | 14.49 | 84.3% |
| Central Maine Power (Avangrid) | Maine | 11.77 | 21.08 | 79.2% |
| Versant Power (ENMAX) | Maine | 11.53 | 19.99 | 73.4% |
| Montana-Dakota Utilities | Montana | 7.23 | 11.57 | 60.1% |
| Seattle City Light | Washington | 7.75 | 11.77 | 51.8% |
| Eversource Energy (NSTAR/WMECo) | Massachusetts | 17.86 | 27.00 | 51.1% |
| Southern California Edison (SCE) | California | 15.28 | 23.09 | 51.1% |
| Golden Valley Electric Assoc. | Alaska | 19.39 | 29.15 | 50.3% |
| Portland General Electric (PGE) | Oregon | 9.24 | 13.87 | 50.2% |
Utilities with the highest Industrial Rate Increases: 2015 — 2024 (Latest Available Data)
| Utility | State | 2015 (¢/kWh) | 2024 (¢/kWh) | 10-yr change |
| Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) | California | 14.53 | 33.15 | 128.1% |
| Central Maine Power (Avangrid) | Maine | 9.16 | 20.36 | 122.3% |
| AEP Ohio (Columbus S&P) | Ohio | 7.04 | 15.18 | 115.5% |
| Ohio Edison / FirstEnergy | Ohio | 6.69 | 13.24 | 97.9% |
| Con Edison | New York | 16.70 | 30.95 | 85.3% |
| Southern California Edison (SCE) | California | 11.87 | 20.57 | 73.3% |
| NV Energy (Sierra Pacific Power) | Nevada | 5.89 | 9.75 | 65.7% |
| Minnesota Power (ALLETE) | Minnesota | 5.50 | 8.95 | 62.9% |
| Seattle City Light | Washington | 6.64 | 10.09 | 52.1% |
| PSE&G (Public Service E&G) | New Jersey | 5.54 | 8.37 | 51.1% |
PG&E tops both lists: its customers pay more than double what they paid in 2015 for the same kilowatt-hour. Our downloadable workbook covers the top two utilities in every state, with residential rates alongside the commercial and industrial figures shown here.
Why are commercial electricity rates still rising in 2026?
The forces behind the 2021-2025 surge are structural, and most of them are just getting started.
- Demand is surging after 15 years of steady growth. EIA reports U.S. electricity demand up 2.1% per year over the last five years, with data-center load the dominant growth driver through 2050. New demand means new generation, transmission, and distribution — and that capital lands in rates.
- Grid investment is the cost driver utilities themselves cite. Transmission hardening against extreme weather, wildfire mitigation in the West, and post-storm grid rebuilds all flow into rate cases.
- Regional pressure is compounding. Record PJM capacity auction prices are hitting bills across the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest, and ISO-NE supply constraints are squeezing New England.
- Near-term forecasts already match the new pace. EIA projects residential prices averaging 18.2 ¢/kWh in 2026, with East Coast regions rising 5-7% per year through 2027.
Based on these drivers, our team projects rates to grow 4.0% to 9.5% per year through 2035, averaging 5.1% nationally — a cumulative increase of roughly 65% over the next decade. See how we took a state-by-state look and key energy cost growth drivers, and how it compares to that state’s own verified history, in our free electricity cost analysis workbook.
What this means for a facility that hasn’t upgraded
Inefficient technology gets more expensive every year you keep it — even if it never degrades. Take lighting. A legacy lighting system in an industrial facility that costs $100,000 a year to run in 2015 costs about $130,178 today. Same fixtures, same output, same hours. The rate environment did that on its own.
Here’s that math in one view — where a $100,000 lighting budget from 2015 has already gone, and where it goes next:
| Annual lighting energy cost | Baseline (2015) | 2025 | Projected 5 Years Out | Projected 10 Years Out |
| At historical industrial trend (2.7%/yr) | $100,000 | $130,178 | $148,527 | $169,463 |
| At PEC projected trend (5.1%/yr) | $100,000 | $130,178 | $166,698 | $213,464 |
That gap is the cost of waiting. And lighting is often the easiest large block of that load to eliminate: an LED retrofit with controls cuts consumption permanently, which means every future rate increase applies to a much smaller number.
Knowing where the energy actually goes is the first step. For warehouse and storage buildings, EIA’s most recent national building energy survey (the 2018 Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey) puts space heating first at 39% of energy use, with lighting third at 15% — and in heavy manufacturing, process and machine loads take the top spots instead. If anything, that snapshot understates the opportunity in an older facility: buildings that upgraded to LED since then have already pulled their lighting share down, and buildings that haven’t still look like 2018. Find your two or three largest energy consumers and ask when the technology behind them was last upgraded. If lighting or heating still runs on decade-old equipment, that’s where the money is leaking.
For facilities still running inefficient equipment, that ranking is a map of low-hanging fruit — ways to protect the operation from rising rates without touching production. LED lighting and lighting controls, for example, are a tried and true way to cut lighting energy use by 50-70%, and the retrofit pays a second dividend: no more re-lamping and ballast maintenance, and a brighter, safer working environment on the floor.
You don’t have to guess. Modern energy monitoring systems are wireless and non-invasive — they install without shutting down production — and show exactly where your power flows, circuit by circuit. That turns “we should be more efficient” into a ranked list of where to focus first.
Big-picture takeaway: every kilowatt-hour you eliminate escalates at zero. Efficiency is the only hedge against rate inflation that also improves visibility, safety, and maintenance burden on the floor.
Energy Is a fixed cost, and it’s rising rapidly.
Rates are the one input on your P&L you can’t negotiate; consumption is the one you can control completely. Facilities that cut consumption now lock in protection against every rate increase that follows — at 2.5% per year or at 9.5%.
3 Resources for applying this to your facilities:
- 2026 Electricity Cost Analysis Dataset:
Download the data workbook our team is working with. We broke down 10-years of EIA data to evaluate trends by state, utility, and the country as whole. This may be particularly helpful if you are evaluating your energy spend from a multi-site or regional portfolio standpoint — understanding which facilities may be getting hit the hardest by rate increases. - Lighting Energy Savings Calculator.
Plug-in your facility and lighting system details and see what type of energy waste you may be experiencing. We used this same EIA data + standard fixture wattages to estimate your lighting energy consumption, energy spending, and how an LED Retrofit may improve those areas. - PEC’s Incentive Insider Feed:
Rebates and special financing programs may also be a big opportunity to get facilities upgraded at a significantly reduced cost. Some rebate programs will cover the entire project cost if the energy savings are strong enough, and several utility-sponsored financing programs will allow you to fully-fund projects using energy savings at 0% or below market interest. Our Energy Program specialists source the best programs in this feed. (not every program is listed, so reach out to our team if you want to chat with an expert directly).
SOURCES: U.S. EIA, Forms EIA-861 and EIA-861M (final data). Projections are PEC planning estimates, not price guarantees or EIA forecasts.
