Highlights
- Post-Great Recession, statewide electricity bills as a percent of GDP have been declining across the U.S. California, Illinois, and New York are the states with the lowest electricity costs as a share of state GDP. California’s electricity bill as a percent of GDP was 1.35 percent in 2019, down from 1.42 percent in 2018. These percentages were significantly lower than those for U.S. without California, which were 1.96 percent in 2019 and 2.06 percent in 2018.
- While California has the highest average electricity retail price among the large states (16.89 cents/kWh, compared to 14.34 cents/kWh in New York and 9.56 cents/kWh in Illinois),110 the state’s electricity bill as a share of GDP is among the lowest, driven by low electricity consumption thanks to the state’s extensive energy efficiency programs and policies that have decreased per capita growth in electricity demand. Among the fifty states, California has the fourth-lowest electricity bill as percentage of GDP (1.35%) in 2019—behind New York (1.18%), Washington (1.19%) and Utah (1.33%).
110 Energy Information Administration. State Energy Profiles. November 2, 2020. Accessed on June 12, 2021. Retrieved from: https://www.eia.gov/electricity/state/
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