South Carolina Electricity Rates and Average Electric Bill

Usage, not price, drives the South Carolina bill. Households use 22% more electricity than the typical US household, while the price runs 12% below the national price. Climate and heating fuel usually explain a gap like this, because air conditioning, space heating and water heating are the largest named uses of electricity in a home (EIA RECS 2020).

Over a year, the average South Carolina household pays about $1,935 for electricity. The state ranks 13th highest for the monthly bill, 22nd lowest for price per kWh and 13th 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 South Carolina households at 56%. electric cooperatives (32%) and public power districts and state or federal systems (7%) cover most of the rest. EIA lists 29 utilities and electricity suppliers with customers in South Carolina.

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

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

South 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 South Carolina reported an average of 1 hour and 43 minutes without power per customer in 2025, with 1.06 interruptions per customer, when major storm days are left out. That outage time is shorter than the median state (127 minutes).

Customers in South Carolina had 42,324 net-metered residential solar systems with a combined 385.0 megawatts of capacity in 2025. That works out to 16.1 systems for every 1,000 households, which ranks 29 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. South Carolina households use 22% 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. 5 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 South Carolina are handled by the Public Service Commission of South Carolina. If you have a billing dispute you could not settle with your utility, the regulator is the next step.