Methodology

Last updated 2026-10-16

BillHike combines public federal data with rate cases that we check by hand against commission dockets. This page explains each source, how we turn it into the numbers you see, and where those numbers stop being reliable.

Average rates by utility

Utility rates come from the Energy Information Administration's annual survey, form EIA-861. We use the 2025 final data, released on 2026-10-07, together with the yearly files from 2015 through 2025 for the history charts. The average effective rate is residential revenue divided by residential sales. A utility that collected $1.5 billion from households that used 10 billion kWh has an average rate of 15 cents per kWh.

Some utilities report only delivery. In those cases customers buy their electricity supply from another company, so the utility's revenue covers wires and service but not the power itself. We mark these as delivery-only and do not compare them with full-service rates. When a utility has both a Bundled row and a Delivery row, the rate comes from the Bundled row, which is the price of its default full-service supply, and Delivery rows set the rate only when no Bundled row exists. Customer counts add both: a home that buys supply from a retailer is still on the utility's wires, so it counts as the utility's customer. Rows that EIA imputed (Data Type I) are shown as "not reported", because they are estimates rather than what the utility filed.

We publish a page for a utility that reported to EIA for 2025 and serves at least 20,000 homes, or that has a rate case in our tracker. Utilities that merged into another company or stopped reporting before 2025 get no page, so older figures are never shown as current.

State averages and recent changes

State and national averages come from the monthly survey, form EIA-861M. Our latest data is through Jul 2026, released on 2026-09-24. The release comes about two months after the month it describes, so "latest" always means a month or two ago. The 12, 36 and 60 month changes compare the same calendar month in each year, for example Jul 2026 against Jul 2025. That avoids mistaking summer cooling costs for a price rise.

When a utility page compares its rate with the state and the US, it uses the 2025 annual averages from the same EIA-861 release, so a full year is compared with a full year. The monthly figures are used only for the recent changes.

ZIP code lookup

Matching a ZIP code to a utility uses the NREL utility-by-ZIP file for 2024. It is a public file updated yearly, so it lags utility changes by about a year. Some entities that appeared in 2025, such as FirstEnergy Pennsylvania, are not in it, so a few utilities cannot be found by ZIP code. In Texas's retail-choice areas, the wires companies (Oncor, CenterPoint, AEP Texas and TNMP) do not report residential sales to EIA, so those ZIP codes lead to the Texas state page instead. If your ZIP code is missing or wrong, you can still reach your utility through the state pages.

Rate cases

The rate-case table is built by hand. For each case we open the commission docket, record the filing date, the requested change, the expected decision date and the final order if there is one, and we link the docket. Every case shows a visible "checked" date, which is the last day someone compared our entry with the docket.

A request and an approval are different things. The requested figure is what the utility asked for when it filed. The approved figure is what the commission allowed. They are shown side by side and never added together, because an approval replaces the request instead of stacking on it. A case is marked overdue when its expected decision date has passed without a published order.

Utilities, regulators and reporters quote different percentages for the same request. We use the average residential increase when a source gives it, and every requested figure is labeled with what it measures: residential, overall (the revenue increase across all customer classes), typical bill, or base step (the first-year step of a multi-year plan).

Estimating your bill

The calculator uses one formula: monthly usage in kWh times the rate in cents per kWh, divided by 100. At 1,000 kWh and 15.16 cents per kWh the bill is $151.60. After a 13.6% increase the bill is $172.22, which is $20.62 more per month.

The result is an estimate, not your bill. Real tariffs often have tiered prices where the first block of kWh costs less, or time-of-use prices that change by hour. Bills also include fixed monthly charges, riders, taxes and fuel adjustments that an average rate does not capture. Use the figure to judge the size of a change, and check your own statement for the exact amount.

How fresh the numbers are

The "N days" counters on utility and rate-case pages are refreshed in your browser when the page loads. The site is also rebuilt from the data files every day, so overdue flags and dates stay current; the underlying figures change only when we publish new data.

Report a problem

If a number looks wrong, tell us which utility and which page, and we will check it against the source.