The statistic represents the average retail price of electricity in the United States between 1998 and 2017, by sector. In 2017, the average retail price of residential electricity was 12.9 cents per kilowatt hour.
A ranking of the global electricity prices in select countries can be found here.
Electricity market – additional information
As shown in the statistic above, the average retail price of electricity in the United States keeps rising. Rates typically vary for residential, commercial and industrial customers. During the last few decades, retail prices of electricity in the U.S. experienced increases in the residential, commercial and industrial sector.
The electricity industry of the United States is the world’s second largest producer and consumer of electricity. In 2014, the electric utility industry generated approximately 393 billion U.S. dollars in revenue. While the total end use of electricity was over 3.8 trillion kilowatt hours in 2014. Almost 18 percent of the global primary energy has been consumed in the United States in the same year. The electricity market in the United States is led by electric co-operatives, municipal systems and shareholder-owned electric utilities. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, there were more than 804 municipal electric utilities counted in 2014, followed by 773 cooperative electricity providers.
Electricity prices vary widely from country to country, depending on the source of electricity as well as government and industry regulations. In 2015, Italy was among the top three countries with the highest electricity prices – Italian electricity users paid an average of 15.7 U.S. dollar cents per kilowatt hour. The United States were ranked eight, with prices amounting to approximately 9.43 U.S. dollar cents per kilowatt hour. Over the past several years, the amount of generated electricity in the United States remained stable at approximately 4 trillion kilowatt hours, whereas, the global electricity generation seems to be growing.
