Paying for electricity in America in 2025? Then you know that keeping the lights on isn't cheap.
But just how expensive are utility bills getting? Well, according to the Energy Information Administration, providers are looking to hike rates at a record-breaking pace. A whopping $4.4 billion in increases were approved in 2022 — and that amount more than doubled to $10 billion in 2023, as Reuters shared.
These rate hikes are regulated, but those who regulate them gave the green light to 58% of requests to raise consumer utility bills between the start of 2023 and August 2024, the outlet explained.
Regulatory Research Associates, a utilities consulting group, reported that by last September, $12.7 billion in rate requests had been filed in 2024. The EIA estimated at the time that 70% of those requests would go through if the pace of approvals continued, Reuters reported.
Those are some pretty big numbers. Granted, they reach consumers in much smaller monthly billing amounts, but the impact is harmful all the same.
Why are these providers draining their customers' pockets? It's not arbitrary. In fact, there are two big reasons, according to Reuters.
One is that more industries are needing electricity, and more of it, than ever before. The tech industry, in particular, requires a massive amount of energy to run data centers for things like artificial intelligence.
The second is that as our planet heats up, cases of extreme weather are becoming more frequent and more intense. These disasters can destroy electrical systems, so providers are taking new care to protect their infrastructure.
Both of these forces — rising demand coupled with a more precarious environment — require utility companies to make expensive maintenance and operating decisions. Clearly, much of that cost is falling squarely on consumers.
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"[Regulatory Research Associates] has been tracking rate cases since the early 1980s," said RRA senior research analyst Dan Lowrey, per Reuters. "2023 was the most amount of rate increases requested in our history."
Want to be shielded from some of this turbulence? Going solar is a viable option. It decreases your home's reliance on the grid while slashing your monthly bill. Plus, you won't be supporting the dirty energy sources that are overheating the planet (and causing the extreme weather that drives up rates, too).
Interested? EnergySage has a free tool that can help you get a sense of what's out there in the world of solar, as well as how much it costs upfront and ways to save.
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