Independent profile. Kilowatt Atlas is not affiliated with Montana-Dakota Utilities, does not use its logo or branding and cannot take payments, start service or look up accounts. Figures come from public federal data for 2025.
Residential customers
121 thousand
120,678 homes
Average price
11.47 cents
North Dakota average 11.82
Average bill
$94.38
Per month at 823 kWh
Price rank
6 of 10
Lowest to highest in North Dakota
Montana-Dakota Utilities rates and average bill
Montana-Dakota Utilities reported 120,678 residential customers on bundled service in 2025, using 823 kWh a month on average at 11.47 cents per kWh. Bundled means the utility supplies the energy and delivers it, so the price covers both. Among the 10 North Dakota utilities with at least 10,000 bundled residential customers, Montana-Dakota Utilities ranks 6 from the lowest price.
| Average | Cents per kWh | kWh per month | Monthly bill |
|---|---|---|---|
| Montana-Dakota Utilities | 11.47 | 823 | $94.38 |
| North Dakota (all utilities) | 11.82 | 1,070 | $126.40 |
| United States | 17.23 | 874 | $150.68 |
Figures cover all of Montana-Dakota Utilities's states together. A utility with a large territory can have different rates in different places.
Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Form EIA-861 (final 2025 data), sales to ultimate customers. Price is revenue divided by sales and includes fixed charges.
Service area
EIA lists the counties where Montana-Dakota Utilities has distribution equipment. That covers 55 counties in North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota. A county can be served by more than one utility, so confirm your address with the utility or your bill.
North Dakota (29 counties)
Adams, Billings, Bottineau, Bowman, Burke, Burleigh, Dickey, Divide, Dunn, Emmons, Golden Valley, Grant, Hettinger, Kidder, LaMoure, Logan, McIntosh, McKenzie, Mercer, Morton, Mountrail, Oliver, Renville, Richland, Sioux, Slope, Stark, Ward, Williams
South Dakota (13 counties)
Brown, Campbell, Corson, Day, Edmunds, Faulk, Grant, Harding, McPherson, Perkins, Potter, Roberts, Walworth
Montana (11 counties)
Custer, Daniels, Dawson, Fallon, McCone, Prairie, Richland, Roosevelt, Rosebud, Sheridan, Wibaux
Wyoming (2 counties)
Johnson, Sheridan
Not sure who serves your address? Use find my electric company.
Reliability
For 2025, Montana-Dakota Utilities reported an average of 134 minutes without power per customer and 0.88 interruptions per customer, with major event days left out. The typical interruption lasted about 152 minutes. For comparison, the median state averaged 127 minutes of outage per customer.
Montana-Dakota Utilities sits close to the median state on outage minutes. The North Dakota figure across its utilities was 75 minutes. One interruption lasting 152 minutes and 0.88 interruptions a year per customer add up to the 134 minute total.
Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Form EIA-861 (final 2025 data), reliability schedule, measured under IEEE 1366. Utilities define events slightly differently, so compare with care.
Rate options and rooftop solar
- Time-of-use pricing. Montana-Dakota Utilities reports a residential time-of-use pricing program in its 2025 EIA filing, with about 5 residential customers enrolled in dynamic pricing programs of all kinds. Ask the utility which rate schedules you qualify for. How time-of-use rates work.
- Rooftop solar and net metering. EIA shows 215 residential net-metered systems on the Montana-Dakota Utilities grid in 2025, with 1.6 megawatts of capacity. How net metering works.
Who owns and regulates it
A private company owned by shareholders. A state commission reviews its costs and sets or approves its rates in formal rate cases. In North Dakota, that review is done by the North Dakota Public Service Commission.
Montana-Dakota Utilities is an investor-owned utility based in North Dakota, and it also reports customers in 3 other states.
Montana-Dakota Utilities operates in the SPP and MISO power markets. Power markets set wholesale costs, but your retail rate is set by the rules described above.
Montana-Dakota Utilities compared with North Dakota
By residential customers, Montana-Dakota Utilities ranks 1st of the 14 utilities that report homes in North Dakota, with about 19.9% of the state's homes. North Dakota has too few other investor-owned utilities with reported prices to compare Montana-Dakota Utilities with its type, so the state average of 11.82 cents per kWh is the fairest yardstick. At $94.38 a month, an average Montana-Dakota Utilities home pays about $384 a year less than the North Dakota average of $126.40, and uses 247 kWh a month less. Montana-Dakota Utilities reports customers in 4 states, and this profile uses its largest, North Dakota, for comparisons. 215 of its residential customers use net metering, or 1.8 per 1,000 homes, against 0.2 for North Dakota as a whole.
Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Form EIA-861 (final 2025 data). Peers are other utilities of the same type in North Dakota with at least 1,000 residential customers and a reported price.
Other North Dakota utilities
| Utility | Type | Homes | Cents per kWh |
|---|---|---|---|
| Montana-Dakota Utilities | Investor-owned | 120,678 | 11.47 |
| Xcel Energy Minnesota | Investor-owned | 1,420,807 | 16.50 |
| Otter Tail Power | Investor-owned | 104,750 | 11.19 |
| Cass County Electric Cooperative | Cooperative | 52,785 | 12.66 |
| Nodak Electric Cooperative | Cooperative | 20,715 | 12.69 |
| Capital Electric Cooperative | Cooperative | 19,650 | 13.53 |
See every one on the electric companies in North Dakota page.
Official site and where to get help
Kilowatt Atlas is not Montana-Dakota Utilities and does not take payments, start service or manage accounts. To pay a bill, report an outage or start service, use the website, app or phone number printed on your bill. Be careful with search ads and lookalike sites that offer to pay your bill for a fee.
- Want to understand a line on your bill? Read how to read your electric bill.
- Think your bill is high? Try the bill checker.
Montana-Dakota Utilities questions
What is the average residential electric rate for Montana-Dakota Utilities?
Montana-Dakota Utilities residential customers on bundled service paid an average of 11.47 cents per kWh in 2025, with average use of 823 kWh a month and an average bill of $94.38 (EIA Form EIA-861). The North Dakota average was 11.82 cents.
How many customers does Montana-Dakota Utilities have?
EIA reports about 120,678 residential customers for Montana-Dakota Utilities in 2025.
Who regulates Montana-Dakota Utilities?
A private company owned by shareholders. A state commission reviews its costs and sets or approves its rates in formal rate cases. See the regulator for North Dakota on the North Dakota state page.
How reliable is Montana-Dakota Utilities?
For 2025, Montana-Dakota Utilities reported an average of 134 minutes of outage per customer and 0.88 interruptions per customer, excluding major event days (IEEE 1366). Utilities measure outages in slightly different ways, so compare with care.