Average electric bill in California: what the data actually shows

• The average California home paid about $161 a month for electricity in 2024, the latest full year of utility data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, using about 503 kWh a month — 16.5 kWh a day.
• The price is 33.61¢ per kWh (July 2026, the latest month EIA has published) — about 1.8× the U.S. average of 18.31¢ and second of 51 U.S. jurisdictions. Only Hawaii is higher.
• Real bills spread widely. Utility-reported averages for June 2026 range from $69 to $254 a month depending on utility, climate zone and CARE status.
• Californians use far less electricity than most Americans — 42% less than the U.S. average home — and still pay about 13% more a month.
• Your utility matters. In 2024 an LADWP household averaged $116 a month; an SCE household on full SCE service, $164; PG&E, $198.

This is the number most “average bill” pages are reaching for, and it comes with two cautions. It is 2024: SCE estimated a 12.9% rise in typical bills on October 1, 2025 and has moved rates several times since, so a 2026 SCE bill at the same use is higher (SCE puts its typical 500 kWh bill at $188.64 from October 1, 2026, SCE rate advisory). And it blends apartments with large houses, so it describes no particular home. Across all customers in each territory, daily use averaged 16.3 kWh at SCE, 15.9 at LADWP, 14.1 at PG&E and 9.7 at SDG&E.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration publishes an average residential price for every state each month. For July 2026, the most recent month available, California’s residential price was 33.61¢ per kWh, against a U.S. average of 18.31¢.

We cross-checked that figure against EIA’s own underlying data rather than taking it at face value. In the same month California’s residential sector bought 8,480 thousand megawatt-hours and paid $2,850 million for it. Dividing one by the other gives 33.61¢ per kWh — the published price, reproduced from the raw sales and revenue tables.

The utilities report estimated average bills to the CPUC’s Public Advocates Office quarterly, broken out by a sample hot and cool climate zone in each service territory and by whether the household receives the CARE low-income discount. These are the figures as of June 1, 2026, the latest published.

Three things fall out of this table that a single statewide number cannot show.

1. The spread within California is 3.7×. A Non-CARE household in SCE’s hot zone 15 averages $254 a month. A CARE household in PG&E’s cool zone averages $69. Both are California; both are “average.”

2. Climate beats utility. Within SCE alone, hot zone 15 versus cool zone 6 is $254 against $152 for the same customer class. The report notes why: zone 15 households average around 700 kWh a month, zone 6 around 385 kWh. Nearly all of that gap is air conditioning, not rates.

3. SDG&E runs backwards. Its coastal Non-CARE customers average $156 — more than its desert customers at $130. The report attributes this to coastal customers using more electricity in winter. Any page that assumes hotter always means higher has this one wrong.

If you want one number to compare yourself against, use the row that matches your utility, your climate and your income status — not the statewide average.

Between July 2025 and July 2026 the California residential price went from 32.66¢ to 33.61¢, up 2.9%. Over the same twelve months the U.S. average rose from 17.45¢ to 18.31¢, up 4.9%, and Maine jumped from 27.98¢ to 32.41¢.

The practical reading: California remains extremely expensive in absolute terms, but the rest of the country is closing part of the gap rather than California pulling further ahead. California’s prices move in steps when rate changes are approved, so treat any single month as a dated observation, not a forecast — our rate filings tracker shows what the utilities have asked for next.

Before you compare two published averages, check which of these three they used. A page quoting a low figure and a page quoting a high one can both be arithmetically correct on the same data. This page uses all three for what each is good at: EIA’s $161 as the statewide average, the utility-reported bills as the realistic range, and the monthly price for your own arithmetic.

Monthly energy cost = your monthly kWh × your price per kWh. At California’s July 2026 statewide residential price of 33.61¢:

Two things this deliberately leaves out, because they are specific to your account and cannot be averaged honestly: fixed charges (a daily service charge applies on most plans regardless of usage) and taxes and local surcharges. Your actual statement will sit above these figures for that reason.

It also uses a single statewide price. Your own rate depends on your utility, your rate plan, the season, and — on time-of-use plans — when in the day you use electricity. For an SCE household that last factor can matter more than the total: see our comparison of SCE time-of-use plans and, for the block of usage priced most favorably, our SCE baseline region lookup.

The CPUC’s independent ratepayer advocate reports that more than one in five households served by California’s three large investor-owned utilities are behind on their energy bills — 2,424,244 customers, or 20.6%, owing an average of $619.

SCE’s own monthly report to the CPUC shows the count easing but not the balance: 764,586 SCE residential customers were in arrears in July 2026, owing $640.9 million, 39% of it more than 180 days old (SCE disconnect data report, July 2026). Help with a past-due bill is covered in can’t pay your electric bill.

This reframes the question. “Average bill” suggests a typical household comfortably paying a typical amount. For roughly a fifth of these customers, the bill is not being paid in full at all.

The Public Advocates Office names three primary statewide drivers, citing the CPUC’s SB 695 report:

1. Wildfire mitigation and wildfire liability costs
2. Transmission and distribution investments
3. Rooftop solar incentives (“net energy metering”)

We install solar for a living, and we are publishing the regulator’s third item unedited. Cost-shift from net energy metering is contested — solar advocates dispute both its size and its framing — but it appears on the CPUC’s own list, and leaving it out to make this page more comfortable would make it less accurate. It is also part of why NEM 3.0 replaced NEM 2.0.

• CARE — a 30–35% discount on the electric rate. With exemptions from certain costs and the Base Services Charge treatment, the Public Advocates Office states CARE customers see total discounts of approximately 40%. Eligibility: household income at or below 200% of the federal poverty guidelines, or enrollment in a qualifying program such as CalFresh, Medi-Cal, SSI or WIC.
• FERA — an 18% discount on electricity for households between 200% and 250% of the federal poverty guidelines. Offered by SCE, SDG&E and PG&E only.

What it is actually worth — taken from the reported bills above rather than from a percentage applied to a statewide average:

• SCE, hot zone 15: $254 → $165 — about $89 a month, roughly $1,070 a year.
• SCE, cool zone 6: $152 → $81 — about $71 a month.
• PG&E, cool zone: $124 → $69 — about $55 a month.
• SDG&E, desert: $130 → $126 — only about $4, which shows the discount is not uniform and depends on the underlying usage and rate mix.

These are differences between reported average bills for the two customer groups in the same zone, so they reflect both the discount and any usage differences between those groups. They are not a quoted discount for your own account.

• Your actual bill. It depends on your utility, rate plan, baseline allocation, season, time-of-day usage, fixed charges and local taxes. Your statement is the authority.
• A single statewide average bill. No such figure exists that is both honest and useful — see the three methods above.
• Whether your bill is “too high.” That is a usage question, not a price question. Our California usage comparison answers it directly.
• Next month’s price. EIA publishes history, not forecasts, and California rates change through regulatory decisions.

Solar reduces the kilowatt-hours you buy; it does not remove the fixed charges, taxes and non-bypassable charges that survive regardless of production. That residual is why a well-sized system produces a small bill rather than no bill.

Two rules decide how much it helps. First, which utility bills you: under California’s Net Billing Tariff, exported energy is worth less than the energy you avoid buying, so self-consumption matters more than raw production — see how the NEM 3.0 export rate is set. LADWP customers are on a different basis entirely. Second, the federal credit has changed: per the IRS, the Residential Clean Energy Credit is not available for property placed in service after December 31, 2025, so any page still quoting a 30% federal credit for a new system is out of date.

Figures on this page come from the primary sources below and, where noted, from Cali Energy calculations using the stated assumptions. Rates, incentives, and program terms change; each was verified October 6, 2026.

1. EIA — Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.A (average price by state, July 2026)
2. EIA — Table 5.4.A (retail sales by state, July 2026)
3. EIA — Table 5.5.A (revenue by state, July 2026)
4. SCE — Rate advisory (typical 500 kWh bill from October 1, 2026)
5. SCE — Monthly Disconnect Data Report, July 2026 (filed August 20, 2026)
6. EIA — Form EIA-861 annual electric utility data, 2024 (residential sales, revenue, customers)
7. EIA — Electric Power Monthly (publication home)
8. IRS — Residential Clean Energy Credit
9. LADWP — residential electric rates
10. SCE — time-of-use residential rate plans
11. CPUC Public Advocates Office — Q2 2026 Electric Rates Report (PDF)
12. CPUC — CARE/FERA Program
13. SCE — CARE & FERA discounted rates