State electricity profile · EIA monthly through May 2026
Arkansas Electricity
As of May 2026, residential electricity in Arkansas costs 14.36¢ per kWh (+8.9% vs May 2025). EIA publishes these figures monthly and this page follows them. Arkansas's 2025 annual residential electricity rate is 12.84¢/kWh, 25.8% below the US average. The rate runs below the national average on a mix that is still only 13% renewable. Commercial, industrial and generation-mix figures follow.
- 14.36¢
- May 2026 rate
- +8.9%
- year over year
- 12.84¢/kWh
- Residential rate
- -25.8%
- vs US average
- 13%
- Renewable
- 1.5M
- Customers
Verify with EIA → · Methodology
12.84¢/kWh residential, 10.76¢/kWh commercial
In the U.S. Energy Information Administration's 2025 annual-frequency retail-sales series, Arkansas's residential average revenue per kWh is 12.84¢/kWh, with a commercial average of 10.76¢/kWh and an industrial average of 6.71¢/kWh; a separate EIA generation series for 2025 reports 13% of the state's generation from renewables.
- 25.8% below the US average vs national residential average
- 13% renewable generation
The verdict · 2025
Arkansas's residential electricity runs 12.84¢/kWh - 25.8% below the 17.30¢/kWh national average, cheaper than 92% of other states, with 13% of its power from renewables.
This is EIA state average revenue per kWh across 1.5M reported residential customers, a benchmark for comparing states, not the tariff on any single bill. Source: EIA retail-sales API, annual frequency.
Annual rate change
What changed in the 2025 annual EIA period
- Arkansas's commercial average rose from 10.24¢/kWh to 10.76¢/kWh between the 2024 and 2025 annual-frequency EIA retail-sales periods, a change of +5.1%.
- Arkansas's residential average rose from 12.32¢/kWh to 12.84¢/kWh between the 2024 and 2025 annual-frequency EIA retail-sales periods, a change of +4.2%.
- Arkansas's industrial average rose from 6.61¢/kWh to 6.71¢/kWh between the 2024 and 2025 annual-frequency EIA retail-sales periods, a change of +1.5%.
Who generates Arkansas's electricity
Arkansas has 206 operable generating units on EIA's inventory totalling 16,574 MW of net summer capacity. The largest single plant is Union Power Station , a natural gas fired combined cycle station operated by Entergy Arkansas LLC , rated 2,049 MW.
Balancing authorities keep supply and demand matched on the grid; the largest here by capacity are Midcontinent Independent Transmission System Operator, Inc., Southwest Power Pool and Southwestern Power Administration.
Showing the 16 largest of 118 operable plants in Arkansas by net summer capacity.
| Plant | Operator | Technology | County | MW |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Union Power Station | Entergy Arkansas LLC | Natural Gas Fired Combined Cycle | – | 2,049 |
| Arkansas Nuclear One | Entergy Arkansas LLC | Nuclear | – | 1,807 |
| Independence Steam Electric Station | Entergy Arkansas LLC | Conventional Steam Coal | – | 1,666 |
| White Bluff | Entergy Arkansas LLC | Conventional Steam Coal | – | 1,253 |
| Plum Point Energy Station | NRG Energy Services - Plum Point | Conventional Steam Coal | – | 680 |
| John W Turk Jr Power Plant | Southwestern Electric Power Co | Conventional Steam Coal | – | 650 |
| Magnet Cove | Arkansas Electric Coop Corp | Natural Gas Fired Combined Cycle | – | 642 |
| Hot Spring Generating Facility | Entergy Arkansas LLC | Natural Gas Fired Combined Cycle | – | 559 |
| Harry L. Oswald | Arkansas Electric Coop Corp | Natural Gas Fired Combined Cycle | – | 548 |
| Lake Catherine | Entergy Arkansas LLC | Natural Gas Steam Turbine | – | 522 |
| Flint Creek | Southwestern Electric Power Co | Conventional Steam Coal | – | 494 |
| Dell Power Station | Associated Electric Coop, Inc | Natural Gas Fired Combined Cycle | – | 478 |
| Bull Shoals | USCE-Little Rock District | Conventional Hydroelectric | – | 275 |
| Thomas Fitzhugh | Arkansas Electric Coop Corp | Natural Gas Fired Combined Cycle | – | 209 |
| Flat Fork Solar | Flat Fork Solar, LLC | Solar Photovoltaic | – | 200 |
| Forgeview Solar | Forgeview Solar, LLC | Solar Photovoltaic | – | 200 |
| Operating company | Plants | Net summer MW |
|---|---|---|
| Entergy Arkansas LLC | 11 | 8,357 |
| Arkansas Electric Coop Corp | 10 | 1,936 |
| Southwestern Electric Power Co | 2 | 1,144 |
| USCE-Little Rock District | 6 | 718 |
| NRG Energy Services - Plum Point | 1 | 680 |
| Associated Electric Coop, Inc | 1 | 478 |
| Flat Fork Solar, LLC | 1 | 200 |
| Forgeview Solar, LLC | 1 | 200 |
| Long Lake Solar, LLC | 1 | 200 |
| City Water and Light Plant | 2 | 187 |
Operable units only, from EIA's generator inventory as reported for 2026-05. Capacity is net summer rating, which is what a unit can reliably deliver in peak conditions rather than its nameplate figure. Ownership and operatorship can differ; the company shown is the one EIA records as operating the unit.
Market Overview
Residential Revenue
$2.5B
Commercial Revenue
$1.3B
Residential Sales
19.2M MWh
Residential Customers
1.5M
What Arkansas's Electricity Data Tells Us
Residential customers in Arkansas pay 12.84¢/kWh in 2025, across 1.5M metered households, placing the state 25.8% below the national residential average of 17.30¢/kWh. Commercial rates sit at 10.76¢/kWh while industrial buyers pay 6.71¢/kWh. These sector averages describe recorded revenue per kWh; this dataset alone does not establish why they differ. Annual residential sales total 19.2M MWh on roughly $2.5B in utility revenue. Sales and revenue are reported retail-series measures and should not be treated as a local load forecast.
Arkansas prices its sectors in step: 47 of 51 residential against 47 industrial. A state this consistent is the exception rather than the rule, and it means the residential figure above is a fair proxy for how the whole grid is priced. Arkansas's generation is unusually spread across fuels: the leading source, natural gas, accounts for only 33.3%, and coal at 30.7% is barely behind it. It is the leading fuel in 26 states. Renewable fuels (solar, wind, hydro, geothermal and biomass) account for 12.9% of Arkansas's electricity output. These shares describe in-state generation, not a utility-specific customer bill.
Looking back across EIA records, residential prices in Arkansas moved from 9.92¢/kWh in 2016 to 12.84¢/kWh in 2025, a 29.4% shift over that window. States charging a similar rate include Montana, Utah, Louisiana, a useful peer set for a sanity check. Because gas sets the price of the marginal megawatt-hour on a grid built around it, Arkansas's residential rate tracks the fuel market with a lag: a gas-price winter shows up on bills months later, and a cheap gas year works its way through the same way. Read the number as a floor rather than a promise. A statewide average this far under the national figure is usually held down by a few large low-cost generators, and a household on the wrong side of a service-territory boundary in Arkansas can pay well above it.
-25.8%
Much cheaper vs the US residential average
92%
of states have higher rates — Among the cheapest
13%
Low renewable share — below the 25% US mix
1.5M
residential customers served
Energy Generation Mix (2025)
How Arkansas generates its electricity, from the EIA generation series for 2025 (separate from the 2025 retail-sales price figures above). Renewable sources account for 12.9% of generation.
- Natural Gas33.3%
- Coal30.7%
- Nuclear22.9%
- Solarrenewable7.8%
- Hydrorenewable4.8%
- Windrenewable0.3%
- Pumped Storage0.2%
Residential Price History
Arkansas residential average revenue per kWh moved from 9.92¢/kWh in 2016 to 12.84¢/kWh in 2025 (29.4% over the window).
- Arkansas residential avg
- 12.84¢/kWh 29.4% since 2016
- 2016 → 2025
- Arkansas residential: 2016, 9.92¢
- Arkansas residential: 2017, 10.3¢
- Arkansas residential: 2018, 9.81¢
- Arkansas residential: 2019, 9.8¢
- Arkansas residential: 2020, 10.4¢
- Arkansas residential: 2021, 11.3¢
- Arkansas residential: 2022, 12.1¢
- Arkansas residential: 2023, 12.3¢
- Arkansas residential: 2024, 12.3¢
- Arkansas residential: 2025, 12.8¢
Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, retail-sales API · annual frequency. Arkansas full trend →
Arkansas Average Price by Sector and Year (¢/kWh)
The chart above tracks households only. In 2025, Arkansas households paid 12.84¢/kWh while businesses paid 10.76¢/kWh, a 19.3% residential premium, a moderate household-versus-business gap. Every year EIA has published is below, so a single year can be read across all three sectors rather than assembled from three separate EIA queries.
| Year | Residential | Commercial | Industrial |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 12.84¢/kWh | 10.76¢/kWh | 6.71¢/kWh |
| 2024 | 12.32¢/kWh | 10.24¢/kWh | 6.61¢/kWh |
| 2023 | 12.25¢/kWh | 10.34¢/kWh | 6.87¢/kWh |
| 2022 | 12.05¢/kWh | 10.26¢/kWh | 7.38¢/kWh |
| 2021 | 11.27¢/kWh | 9.56¢/kWh | 6.57¢/kWh |
| 2020 | 10.41¢/kWh | 8.61¢/kWh | 5.89¢/kWh |
| 2019 | 9.80¢/kWh | 8.78¢/kWh | 6.13¢/kWh |
| 2018 | 9.81¢/kWh | 7.75¢/kWh | 5.64¢/kWh |
| 2017 | 10.28¢/kWh | 8.51¢/kWh | 6.07¢/kWh |
| 2016 | 9.92¢/kWh | 8.23¢/kWh | 6.08¢/kWh |
Average revenue per kilowatt-hour, U.S. Energy Information Administration annual-frequency retail-sales series. Revenue per kWh is what customers in each sector actually paid on average, not an advertised tariff rate. Years with no EIA figure for a sector show —.
Where Arkansas's residential rate sits nationally
2025 average revenue per kWh across every reporting state
12.84¢/kWh Top 10% most affordable More affordable than 92% of 50 other states
all reporting states, equal-width bands
Each bar spans 5¢/kWh. Taller bars contain more states; the dashed marker locates this state. Hover, focus or tap a bar for its exact count and share.
Source U.S. Energy Information Administration, retail-sales API · 2025 annual frequency
How Arkansas compares
Average revenue per kWh, EIA retail-sales API. Pick a benchmark above to compare Arkansas against the US average or a peer state.
States with Similar Electricity Prices
Other states led by natural gas
These grids also report natural gas as their largest generation share in the latest EIA mix — a different peer set from the price neighbors above.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Where does RateWatt's Arkansas electricity data come from? ▼
Using Arkansas's numbers
With renewables still a small share of generation here, the figures above describe a mix that has further to travel than most. Watch what Arkansas builds when its existing thermal capacity retires, because that is the decision the next decade of rates is made of.
- Arkansas sits 25.8% below the national average, see exactly where it lands among all 50 states. See the rankings
- Check the multi-year trend before you judge the rate, a low price rising fast can cost more over a decade than a steady one. Arkansas price trend
- Compare Arkansas side by side with the US average and peer states using the tool above, then estimate your own bill from your monthly kWh. Cost calculator
Figures are EIA state averages by sector, computed as revenue divided by sales, so delivery and taxes are inside them but not broken out. Your actual rate depends on your utility, plan, and usage, see our disclaimer.
Read with Arkansas: cheapest states for electricity
Where Arkansas's figures come from
Every price and generation figure on this page is drawn from the EIA series below, and from nothing else.
Utilities serving Arkansas
The 30 utilities that reported bundled residential service in Arkansas to EIA Form 861 (2024), largest first. Entity prices below are Form 861 averages for that release, not the same survey as the 2025 retail-sales statewide average above, and not a household tariff. What an individual household pays depends on which of these serves its address.
| Utility | Ownership | Customers | Avg ¢/kWh |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entergy Arkansas LLC | Investor Owned | 608.4K | 12.97¢ |
| Southwestern Electric Power Co | Investor Owned | 108.1K | 11.53¢ |
| Carroll Electric Coop Corp - (AR) | Cooperative | 101.2K | 12.25¢ |
| First Electric Coop Corp | Cooperative | 95.2K | 12.27¢ |
| Ozarks Electric Coop Corp - (AR) | Cooperative | 72.1K | 13.03¢ |
| Oklahoma Gas & Electric Co | Investor Owned | 58.2K | 11.49¢ |
| Arkansas Valley Elec Coop Corp | Cooperative | 54.4K | 13.33¢ |
| North Arkansas Elec Coop, Inc | Cooperative | 36.4K | 12.86¢ |
| City Water and Light Plant | Municipal | 35.0K | 6.63¢ |
| City of North Little Rock - (AR) | Municipal | 35.0K | 12.23¢ |
| Conway Corporation | Municipal | 31.0K | 8.29¢ |
| Craighead Electric Coop Corp | Cooperative | 25.3K | 11.99¢ |
| City of Bentonville - (AR) | Municipal | 25.1K | 11.65¢ |
| Southwest Arkansas E C C | Cooperative | 24.9K | 12.96¢ |
| C & L Electric Coop Corp | Cooperative | 20.0K | 13.26¢ |
Showing the 15 largest of 30 reporting utilities. The 3 serving 100.0K+ residential customers link to a full profile. Presence in EIA Form 861 is not evidence that a utility is available at a given address or that a customer may choose it.
Related
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.
Every figure on RateWatt is rendered directly from official U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) data, no number is typed in by an editor. Statewide prices use the EIA retail-sales annual series (2025). Generation mix uses a separate EIA generation series (2025). Utility rows use Form EIA-861 (2024) and are not averaged into the statewide retail-sales figure. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of 2025.