North Carolina Electricity Rates and Average Electric Bill

The North Carolina bill sits close to the national figure. Prices run 19% below the national price and households use 19% more electricity than the typical US household, and those two gaps nearly cancel each other out.

Over a year, the average North Carolina household pays about $1,754 for electricity. The state ranks 25th lowest for the monthly bill, 17th lowest for price per kWh and 15th highest for use, out of 51 places (50 states and DC).

Source: EIA Form EIA-861 final 2025 data, residential sector. Bills are revenue divided by customers, divided by 12.

Want to see where your own bill falls? Use the bill checker or read the average bill guide for apartments, houses and different household sizes.

Investor-owned utilities serve the largest share of North Carolina households at 69%. electric cooperatives (22%) and municipal utilities (9%) cover most of the rest. EIA lists 54 utilities and electricity suppliers with customers in North Carolina.

See every utility that reports customers here on the electric companies in North Carolina page.

If you do not know who serves your address, the find my electric company tool matches your county to a utility.

North Carolina does not offer household retail electricity choice. Households buy electricity from the utility that serves their address. That utility can be an investor-owned company, a municipal system or a cooperative, and its rates are set by its regulator or its own board. You can still lower your bill with a better rate plan, efficiency upgrades and bill help programs.

Utilities in North Carolina reported an average of 2 hours and 25 minutes without power per customer in 2025, with 1.21 interruptions per customer, when major storm days are left out. That outage time is close to the median state (127 minutes).

Customers in North Carolina had 66,014 net-metered residential solar systems with a combined 582.5 megawatts of capacity in 2025. That works out to 12.8 systems for every 1,000 households, which ranks 33 of 51 places. Net metering lets a home with solar offset what it uses from the grid, so it changes the bill math for those households. Our net metering guide explains how the credit works.

Outage figures are reported by utilities and follow different standards, so compare states with care. The median state averaged 127 minutes of outage per customer in 2025.

• Start with cooling and water heating. North Carolina households use 19% more electricity than the typical US home, so the biggest savings usually sit in air conditioning, space heating and water heating. Our guide to lowering your bill covers the fixes.
• Ask about time-of-use pricing. 6 of the 8 largest providers report residential time-of-use programs in EIA data. If you can shift laundry, charging and cooling to cheaper hours, the savings can be real. Our time-of-use guide explains how to test it.
• Ask about budget billing. Many utilities spread costs across the year. Read how budget billing works before you sign up.
• Price your appliances. The electricity cost calculator shows what a space heater, dryer or pool pump costs to run at your rate.

Electric rates and consumer complaints in North Carolina are handled by the North Carolina Utilities Commission. If you have a billing dispute you could not settle with your utility, the regulator is the next step.