(Keep reading to the bottom: There’s an update down there, made in response to some pushback, that undoes my whole argument!)
Any time I talk to anybody about energy, I hear lamentation about New Hampshire’s electricity prices. After all, our per-kilowatt charge is just about the highest of any state in the country, and everybody hates sending more money to their utility.
But here’s the thing: New Hampshire’s monthly electric *bills* are only average. I don’t know about you, but it’s the size of my bill – the amount of money I have to send to Eversource each month – that matters to me, not the size of the per-kilowatt-hour rate.
2016 data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (the table is here) shows that the average monthly electric bill in New Hampshire was $110.95, which is below the national average of $112.57. It’s less than the monthly average in 25 other states (and also Alaska and Hawaii, which are such outliers in terms of high energy costs due to their geography that they should be in a different category).
Why is this? Because we’re pretty efficient – we generate a lot of wealth and business while using relatively little electricity. Overall, New England uses the least electricity per capita of any region in the country, according to that same 2016 EIA data.
So the next time you hear sometime ranting about how we need to immediately do X, Y and Z because our high electric rates are bankrupting everybody, point to Florida. It has *much* lower electric rates – 11 cents per kWh compared to our 18.4 cents – and yet its average electric bill was much higher: $123 per month vs. $110 in New Hampshire. This is the pattern in two dozen other states, as well. We are not actually paying more money for the electricity that creates our economy.
Then pat yourself and everybody around you on the back, because we’re smart enough to value Yankee thrift. As mom always said: Waste not, want not.
UPDATE: Several people have responded that I’m missing an important point: Florida has a lot more air conditioning than we do but doesn’t burn heating oil in winter. If you measure total energy usage, not just electricity, they say, we don’t look so good.
How to factor that? Compare our electricity usage to states with roughly comparable annual weather – which I estimate by counting electricity bills in just the two states closest to the Canadian border, from east to west. When I do that for 22 states (ignoring Alaska), I find that our monthly bill is lower than 6 states but higher than 16 – so it looks like we shouldn’t pat ourselves on the back, after all!
Here is a cut and paste of the average monthly bill for those 22 states, with bills higher than NH in bold and with a plus sign:
New Hampshire 110.95
+ Connecticut 142.19
Maine 86.48
+ Massachusetts 113.77
Rhode Island 109.02
Vermont 95.31
New York 104.58
+ Pennsylvania 116.67
Illinois 91.83
+ Indiana 114.96
Michigan 101.64
+ Ohio 111.15
Wisconsin 96.08
Iowa 103.17
Minnesota 96.79
North Dakota 106.28
+ South Dakota 112.53
Montana 88.95
Wyoming 94.66
Idaho 94.90
Oregon 96.71
Washington 90.56
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so you are comparing New Hampshire, which has virtually zero need for Air Conditioning, to Florida…..
why not compare it to Michigan or Illinois?
Yes, that is a good point (as Sam Evans-Brown of NHPR is pointing out at this very moment, on Twitter) – if you add in our heating energy usage, he says, we don’t look so good.
The point stands that efficiency lowers bills, not rates, and the talking point we’re constantly hit with about NH’s high rates should not be the only part of the conversation. Efficiency is effective and affordable. Nobody is out there proposing real solutions to make our rates look like Tennessee, because it’s impossible.
Yes, that is the point (which has gotten rather muddled by my switcheroo). But increasing efficiency is hard, as we all know; complaining that “They” are keeping rates high is much more fun.
I live I’m Somersworth, New Hampshire. My electric bill this month topped over 400 and 300 last month. There’s only 3 people who live I’m this house. How can that be and why is my electric bill so high?
I have updated the post, based partly on your comment
We can do things to lower our cost of energy for our homes and make adjustments with our thermostats or by capital investment in insulation, solar or even geothermal systems that provide heat and a/c with electricity being the only energy source. I’ve often heard that “pay-back” will take X years but in my experience the best way to look at question is on a cash-flow basis. If the capital expense is amortized over the useful life of the system of say 20 or 30 years such investments can be cash flow positive immediately.
The greater problem we have is that for businesses that manufacture in New England. The energy required to power their machinery is the same here as anywhere else in the nation. When the rates in New England exceed the national average it makes it difficult for small manufacturers to remain competitive and makes New England less attractive as a future site for investment in facilities that by their nature will require substantial amounts of energy to operate.
Providing affordable energy is a complex puzzle, but one that we all need to take more time to understand the issue and work towards solutions. After all, all a nuclear plant does is boil water!
It is complex, but you have to attack it on all fronts. I live in a 100+ yr old house, but about 15 yrs ago, I upgraded 60% of my windows starting with the worst ones, and finished them about 5 years later, adding an 8′ slider, and entry door to the list. All are 3x glazed, w/Krypton gas filled. About state of the art. I recently added a13 panel solar array 6 on S, 7 on W. I lease so have a monthly fee ($28/mo 1st yr, up 1 1/2% to $28.53 now in the 2d yr.
There is also a handy chart on the PUC Website, and I called them & they guided me thru it first time. Basically you select your elec provider and then you can look at all the other options in your area. I just finished a 2 yr contract & resigned to a 3 yr with the same comp, at .02 lower than PSNH. I get my hot water from Oil, but belong to the Fuel Club in Claremont who has a base covering RI, MA, ME,NH, & Vt.They negotiate a price for their thousands of clients, so it now costs me $40, but buying 1,000
gal, I come out ahead. My next idea is a Mitsubishi heater exchanger to improve an addition that had no heat added to it. This will allow a couple of unit to warm and cool it. I just payed my elec bill for May, which was $25.86. I need to take a couple more trees out to improve the solar.
Your original comparison is useful in some w
cases. A business choosing where to locate a new facility will compare the potential electric bills for some estimated KwH for each month over an entire year, not the rate per KwH. Air conditioning may be required 9 months in one location, but only 3 months in another. In that case your analysis does have a point.
But heating is another issue. Heating in NH is primarily oil and gas, not electric. In other states electric heat may be more prominent, thus increasing average bills. Maybe the best comparison is average electric bill PLUS average heat bill for a homeowner comparison.
Ummm arnt we missing the point electricity should be operated by the people for the people. Non-profit. Salary caps. And should be be frequently upgraded to lower bills and improve the human step towards a new age where we all live together as one planet for humanity.
another thing not taken into consideration is that most all of the heating and cooling in FL is electric- when central A/C is run backwards it makes some heat. “cold” is anything under 65 to most floridians because they don’t get much of it
My apologies for Commenting on such an old story, and from out-of-state, but I was in Lebanon, NH, just yesterday so I do have an authentic, if modest connection to the state. Here in CT our rates are a penny or two higher that NH, and it’s no fun paying bills, but honestly, looked at objectively, energy costs (all of them, petrol, natural gas, electric, you name it) are incredibly cheap compared to the value received. Aren’t we all being just a little bit selfish when we complain about a monthly electric bill of $100-150 but rarely mention the cost of our cable TV (with the various add on packages) often $150 – $200 a month in CT, for ummm, entertainment?
No one has mentioned the exhorbitant charge just to have a connection: $29/month at NH Elec. Co-op. Eversource in MA is $7/month.
I live I’m Somersworth, New Hampshire. My electric bill this month topped over 400 and 300 last month. There’s only 3 people who live I’m this house. How can that be and why is my electric bill so high?
Melissa,
What is your per kW rate and how many kW do you use?
This bill seems high, but is it usage or the rate? Replacing my old refrigerator lowered my monthly bill by at least 420. The new one only cost $70 a year (before the rates go up.)
Working on the older dryer next.