2025 Residential
12.98¢/kWh
-25.0% vs US avg
Montana residential electricity costs 12.98¢/kWh in 2025
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration retail-sales series (2025 annual frequency), residential electricity in Montana costs 12.98¢/kWh, 25% below the national average. Since 2016, the rate has changed +18.6%.
Where Montana sits: according to EIA's annual retail-sales series, its residential rate changed +18.6% between 2016 and 2025, the 43rd steepest of 51 jurisdictions (the 50 states and the District of Columbia), a steeper move than 16% of the other 50. Ranked on the same 2016 to 2025 window for every state; see the methodology.
Price Trends, Montana vs National Average
Reading the Montana Price Trend
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration's retail-sales series, RateWatt currently holds 2,040 annual state-sector records spanning 2016 through 2025. These are statewide annual averages, not individual utility quotes. See the methodology for source scope and refresh cadence.
Montana residential electricity moved from 10.94¢/kWh in 2016 to 12.98¢/kWh in 2025, a cumulative change of +18.6% over 10 reporting years. The more recent five-year window changed +15.5% since 2020; comparing the two windows describes whether the pace changed, but does not establish why. Against the national residential benchmark of 17.30¢/kWh, Montana now sits 25% below the U.S. average for 2025.
Commercial customers in Montana paid 11.88¢/kWh in 2025, while industrial customers paid 7.02¢/kWh. Sector differences can reflect customer mix, consumption volume, tariff design, and cost allocation; this statewide series does not identify which factor drives a state's gap. Here the residential-to-industrial multiplier is about 1.8x, one descriptive benchmark for comparison with peer states.
EIA reports 7 generation sources for Montana; ranked by share of generation they run coal, hydro, wind, natural gas, solar. Of the 11 sources EIA reports somewhere in the country, Montana records no generation from biomass, geothermal, nuclear or pumped storage. That is an absence in the published series, not a statement that no such capacity exists. This price series and that generation series are published separately and are not joined here, so nothing on this page attributes a price movement to a fuel mix. Adjacent entries in the alphabetical state browser are Missouri and Nebraska; their pages carry the same series on the same basis. EIA publishes the annual series once per year and revises prior years without renumbering them, so a figure here can change when a later release restates it.
Within the year, June is the costliest month on average
The annual averages above smooth over a repeating within-year pattern. Across EIA's monthly series, Montana's residential rate averages about 13.84¢/kWh in June and about 11.75¢/kWh in January, a 16.3% spread around the monthly mean. 24 of the 51 states with a full monthly record sit in this ten-to-twenty percent band. The monthly and annual series summarize the same retail-sales activity at different frequencies; the annual price is revenue divided by sales for the full year, not the arithmetic mean of twelve monthly price ratios.
Within-year profile computed from 36 monthly observations across 3 complete calendar years in EIA's residential series (monthly data begins 2023-01). Partial calendar years are excluded so a newer partial tail cannot bias January–May against later months. Peak and trough are the highest and lowest month averages across that record, not a forecast; the spread is quoted against this state's own monthly mean.
How often the rate has actually fallen
The climb has one interruption: across 9 year-on-year steps, Montana's residential rate fell exactly once, in 2021, by 0.02¢. Every other step was upward.
One of the steadiest price paths in the country
Montana is in the quarter of states whose recent five years most closely match their own long-run pace: about 2.9% a year lately against 1.9% a year across the full record, a difference of just 1.0%. The published series describes that relative steadiness but does not identify its cause.
Both figures are compound annual rates over EIA's published residential series, so the five-year and full-record windows are directly comparable; the national comparison ranks all 51 states and DC on the same measure. Annual state-level averages, not individual bills.
2025 Rate
12.98¢/kWh
vs National Avg
-25.0%
5-Year Change
+15.5%
Since 2016
+18.6%
Annual Average Prices
| Year | Residential | US Avg |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 12.98¢/kWh +2.5% | 17.30¢/kWh |
| 2024 | 12.66¢/kWh +1.0% | 16.48¢/kWh |
| 2023 | 12.54¢/kWh +10.7% | 16.00¢/kWh |
| 2022 | 11.33¢/kWh +1.0% | 15.04¢/kWh |
| 2021 | 11.22¢/kWh -0.2% | 13.66¢/kWh |
| 2020 | 11.24¢/kWh +1.0% | 13.15¢/kWh |
| 2019 | 11.13¢/kWh +1.6% | 13.01¢/kWh |
| 2018 | 10.96¢/kWh +0.1% | 12.87¢/kWh |
| 2017 | 10.95¢/kWh +0.1% | 12.89¢/kWh |
| 2016 | 10.94¢/kWh | 12.55¢/kWh |
Trajectory peers
Which states followed a similar residential price path?
Each state begins at an index of 100 in 2016; the comparison then measures how closely its annual path follows Montana through 2025. This compares the shape of the EIA series, not the price level, and does not claim that two states share the same market or causes.
Closest path shapes
Nearest matches after each state starts at an index of 100
- Idaho +18.8% since 2016
- Missouri +20.3% since 2016
- South Carolina +18.3% since 2016
- North Dakota +16.2% since 2016
- South Dakota +16.7% since 2016
- Iowa +14.9% since 2016
- Arizona +26.1% since 2016
- Wyoming +20.2% since 2016
Other steeper paths
Nearest unused states with a larger 2016–2025 rise
- Minnesota +24.9% since 2016
- North Carolina +27.1% since 2016
- Wisconsin +29.1% since 2016
- Tennessee +26.6% since 2016
- New Mexico +25.4% since 2016
- Delaware +27.6% since 2016
Calculated from 51 jurisdictions covering the complete 2016–2025 annual window. Directional lists exclude states already shown as the closest matches, so every name appears once.
Provider record
Largest bundled residential providers EIA reports for Montana
EIA-861 table 6 lists 14 reporting entities here for 2024, ordered by residential customer count. A provider's appearance is not evidence that it serves every address or that a household can choose it.
| Provider | Ownership | Residential customers | EIA average price |
|---|---|---|---|
| NorthWestern Energy LLC - (MT) | Investor Owned | 328,125 | 14.23¢/kWh |
| Flathead Electric Coop Inc | Cooperative | 63,317 | 9.67¢/kWh |
| Yellowstone Valley Elec Co-op | Cooperative | 21,182 | 13.35¢/kWh |
| Montana-Dakota Utilities Co | Investor Owned | 19,616 | 12.89¢/kWh |
| USBIA-Mission Valley Power | Federal | 16,292 | 8.91¢/kWh |
| Missoula Electric Coop, Inc | Cooperative | 14,686 | 10.50¢/kWh |
| Fergus Electric Coop, Inc | Cooperative | 6,682 | 15.52¢/kWh |
| Northern Lights, Inc | Cooperative | 3,985 | 12.52¢/kWh |
| Lower Yellowstone R E A, Inc | Cooperative | 3,499 | 8.83¢/kWh |
| Fall River Rural Elec Coop Inc | Cooperative | 1,508 | 11.39¢/kWh |
| Powder River Energy Corp | Cooperative | 52 | 12.69¢/kWh |
| McKenzie Electric Coop Inc | Cooperative | 25 | 8.61¢/kWh |
| Black Hills Power, Inc. | Investor Owned | 12 | 6.96¢/kWh |
| Avista Corp | Investor Owned | 9 | 8.50¢/kWh |
“Average price” is EIA's reported residential revenue divided by sales, not a tariff, plan offer, or bill quote. Source: EIA Electric Sales, Revenue, and Average Price, table 6.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Energy Guides
Where Montana's figures come from
Data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Prices in cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh). Annual averages.
Related
Read our methodology , how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.