How do US states rank on electricity?

How to read these rankings

Each ranking sorts every U.S. state and DC on a single dimension, lowest residential cents per kWh, highest renewable share of net generation, highest total retail sales, using the most recent annual EIA release. Rankings are not normative: a low-cost state may still have legacy generation mix or aging transmission, and a high-renewable state may still see retail prices that reflect grid build-out costs. Use the per-state pages to read the underlying record before drawing comparisons across rankings.

The cheapest-electricity ranking sorts every state by its average residential cents per kWh as reported on EIA Form 861. States like Washington and Idaho consistently sit at the top because their grids are dominated by federal hydropower with capital costs paid down decades ago. States like Hawaii and Alaska sit at the bottom because isolated grid topology forces reliance on imported fuel, and small customer bases mean fixed costs are spread across fewer kilowatt-hours. A state's position in this ranking can shift year-over-year as fuel costs, capacity additions, and rate-case decisions move through the regulated tariff structure.

The most-renewable ranking is computed as renewable net generation (hydro plus wind plus solar plus geothermal plus biomass) divided by total net generation, expressed as a percentage. This measures generation mix, not capacity factor and not consumption mix. A state can rank high because it generates more renewable electricity than it consumes (exporting surplus to neighbors via the wholesale grid), or because its absolute generation is small enough that even modest renewable additions push the percentage up. Always pair the renewable share with the absolute generation figures on each state's profile page to understand the full picture.

The most-expensive ranking is the inverse of the cheapest ranking and uses the same residential cents per kWh metric. The highest-consumption ranking sorts by total retail sales in megawatt-hours (residential plus commercial plus industrial), so it tracks economic activity and population rather than rate levels. Texas typically tops this ranking because of its large population and heavy industrial base; Vermont and DC sit at the bottom because of small populations and limited heavy industry. None of these rankings should be read as a single-dimensional verdict on a state's energy policy or affordability, they are sorting tools that surface the underlying EIA data in a comparable format. Read our methodology for the full computation rules and caveats.

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Electricity. See our methodology for transformations.