State electricity profile · 2024

Alabama Electricity

Residential electricity in Alabama runs 15.18¢/kWh, 7.9% below the US average. Commercial, industrial, and generation-mix detail below, all from EIA filings.

15.18¢/kWh
Residential rate
-7.9%
vs US average
7%
Renewable
2.4M
Customers

Verify with EIA → · Methodology

Residential electricity in Alabama costs 15.18¢/kWh (2024), 7.9% below the national average. 6.9% of electricity comes from renewable sources. The state serves 2.4M residential customers.

What Alabama's Electricity Data Tells Us

Residential customers in Alabama pay 15.18¢/kWh in 2024, spread across 2.4M metered households, placing the state 7.9% below the national residential average of 16.48¢/kWh. Commercial rates sit at 13.64¢/kWh while industrial buyers pay 7.25¢/kWh, reflecting the cost differentials that come from voltage level, load factor, and contract length across EIA Form-861 survey respondents. Annual residential sales total 32.9M MWh on roughly $4993.1M in utility revenue, a useful yardstick for sizing local demand against the grid mix that serves it.

The generation mix is led by natural gas at 46.2% of in-state production, with nuclear providing 31.8% and coal supplying 15.0%. Renewable fuels, solar, wind, hydro, geothermal, and biomass, collectively account for 6.9% of Alabama's electricity output, a figure that matters because each renewable megawatt-hour displaces fuel costs that otherwise flow through to retail bills. Legacy fuels still dominate here, which tends to tie retail rates to commodity cycles.

Looking back across EIA records, residential prices in Alabama moved from 11.99¢/kWh in 2016 to 15.18¢/kWh in 2024, a 26.6% shift over that window. Comparable-priced neighbors include West Virginia, Nevada, Texas, which gives a peer set for sanity-checking local quotes. For anyone negotiating a supplier contract, weighing an energy-efficiency upgrade, or modeling a household budget, the combination of current rate, multi-year trend, and generation mix offers a sturdier footing than any single data point on its own.

-7.9%

vs the US residential average

39%

of states have higher residential rates

7%

renewable share, below the US mix

2.4M

residential customers served

How Alabama compares

Residential
Alabama 15.18¢
US average 16.48¢
-8% vs benchmark
Commercial
Alabama 13.64¢
US average 12.75¢
+7% vs benchmark
Industrial
Alabama 7.25¢
US average 8.13¢
-11% vs benchmark

Cents per kWh, EIA Form 861. Pick a benchmark above to compare Alabama against the US average or a peer state.

Residential Price History

Year Price Change
2024 15.18¢/kWh +3.8%
2023 14.63¢/kWh +2.7%
2022 14.25¢/kWh +10.0%
2021 12.96¢/kWh +3.1%
2020 12.57¢/kWh +0.3%
2019 12.53¢/kWh +2.9%
2018 12.18¢/kWh -2.9%
2017 12.55¢/kWh +4.7%
2016 11.99¢/kWh

Energy Generation Mix

How Alabama generates its electricity. Renewable sources account for 6.9% of generation.

Natural Gas 46.2%
Nuclear 31.8%
Coal 15.0%
Hydro renewable 6.0%
Solar renewable 0.9%
Petroleum 0.0%

+ 1 other sources

Alabama Generation Mix

Natural Gas46.2Nuclear31.8Coal15Hydro6Solar0.9Petroleum0
Alabama Generation Mix

Market Overview

Residential Revenue

$4993.1M

Commercial Revenue

$3118.2M

Residential Sales

32.9M MWh

Residential Customers

2.4M

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does electricity cost in Alabama?
Residential electricity in Alabama costs 15.18¢/kWh (2024), which is 7.9% below the national average. Commercial rate: 13.64¢/kWh. Industrial rate: 7.25¢/kWh.
How much of Alabama's electricity is renewable?
Renewable sources account for 6.9% of Alabama's electricity generation (2024). The top source is natural gas at 46.2%.
Are electricity prices going up in Alabama?
From 2016 to 2024, residential electricity in Alabama changed from 11.99¢/kWh to 15.18¢/kWh (+26.6%).
What are commercial and industrial electricity rates in Alabama?
Commercial electricity in Alabama costs 13.64¢/kWh and industrial costs 7.25¢/kWh (2024).
What is the cheapest energy source in Alabama?
Alabama's electricity generation is led by natural gas at 46.2% of the mix, followed by nuclear at 31.8% (2024). Nationally, natural gas and renewables like wind and solar tend to have the lowest marginal generation costs.
Where does RateWatt's Alabama electricity data come from?
All electricity price and generation data comes from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), the official federal statistics agency for energy data. Data is updated annually.

Data Sources

Electricity price and generation data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) (2024). Prices in cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh). Revenue in dollars. Sales in megawatt-hours.

Generation mix data shows the share of each fuel source used to produce electricity in Alabama. Renewable sources include solar, wind, hydroelectric, geothermal, and biomass.

Related

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Electricity (Retail Sales and State Electricity Profiles). See our methodology for details. Retrieved and formatted by RateWatt Editorial

Disclaimer: This information is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute professional advice. Data is sourced from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). Consult a qualified professional before making decisions based on this data.