Electricity sector of the United States

Electricity consumption

Electricity consumption data in this section is based upon data mined from US DOE Energy Information Administration/Electric Power Annual 2022 files In 2022 the total US consumption of electricity was 4,271.88 terawatt-hours (TWh). Consumption was up from 2021, by 122.87 TWh or +2.96%. This is broken down as:

• Residential customers (139.894 million) directly consumed 1,509.23 TWh, or 35.23% of the total. This was up 38.74 TWh (+2.6%) from 2021. An average residential customer used 899 kWh/month and with the average US residential cost of $0.1504/kWh the average monthly electrical bill would be $135.27, up $14.25 (+11.77% from 2021.
• Commercial customers (19.258 million) directly consumed 1,390.87 TWh or 32.56% of the total. This was more (62.43 TWh) than in 2021 with over 155 thousand new customers. An average commercial customer used 6,019 kWh/month and with the average US commercial electric cost of $0.1241/kWh the average monthly electrical bill would be $746.96 up $96.76 (+14.9%) from 2021 . Demand from data centers (4% of total in 2022) and artificial intelligence trainers, new/expanded clean-tech factories, and crypto-mining became a significant component of overall demand in the 2020s. Affected states include Georgia, Texas, Virginia, Arizona, Oregon, Maryland, Kansas, Nebraska, Wisconsin, and South Carolina. Some large consumers are building their own energy production facilities independent of the grid.
• Industrial customers (1,049.983 thousand up 27.8 thousand from 2021) directly consumed 1020.486 TWh or 23.89% of the total. This was a more (19.85 TWh) than in 2021 (+2%).
• Transportation customers (86) directly consumed 6.599 TWh or 0.15% of the total. This was a little higher by 0.265 TWh(+4.1%) than in 2021 TWh) .
• System loss throughout the total electrical grid infrastructure by direct use of the suppliers (139.726 TWh) and for transmission and other system losses and for unaccounted for loads (204.989 TWh) amounts to 344.719 TWh or 8.07% of the total which is down by 0.2% from 2021. Thus, the US electric distribution system is 91.93% efficient and efficiency has improved slightly over the last year.

In addition from consumption from the electrical grid, the US consumers consumed an estimated additional 61.282 (up 12.12 TWh from 2021) TWh from small scale solar systems.

Consumption per person

Electricity consumption per person (per capita) is based upon data mined from US DOE Energy Information Administration/Electric Power Annual 2022 files Population data is from Demographics of the United States. Per capita consumption in 2022 is 12,809 kWh. This is up 351 kWh from 2021 and down 1.8% from a decade ago and down 7.2% from its peak in 2007. The following table shows the yearly US per capita consumption by fuel source from 1999 to 2022.

The following table used the first column from the Demographics of the United States#Vital statistics table for population, and generation from Electric Power Annual. Technically this means that "consumption" includes transmission losses, etc., because the values in the table were all calculated from table ES1. Summary Statistics for the United States. Also since 2016 the small scale solar estimate is included in the solar contribution.

• Gas includes natural gas and other gases.
• Solar includes photovoltaics and thermal and includes small scale solar.
• Misc includes misc generation, pumped storage, and net imports.
• Bio Other includes waste, landfill gas, and other.
• Hydro excludes pumped storage (not an energy source, used by all sources, other than hydro).
• Total includes net imports and calculated small scale solar (since 2016)

Grid storage

USA has 21.9 GW of pumped-storage hydroelectricity and 6.6 GW of grid batteries as of 2022. They are around 80% efficient (20% loss), so they are net consumers of electricity. Pumped storage generated around 1 TWh/month in winter, and around 2.5 TWh/month in summer as of 2021.

Responsibilities in the electricity sector

Policy and regulation

Policy for the electricity sector in the United States is set by the executive and legislative bodies of the federal government and state governments. Within the executive branch of the federal government the Department of Energy plays a key role. In addition, the Environmental Protection Agency is in charge of environmental regulation and the Federal Trade Commission is in charge of consumer protection and the prevention of anti-competitive practices.

Key federal legislation related to the electricity sector includes:

• the Federal Power Act of 1935 that promoted hydropower and increased the role of the federal government in the sector,
• the National Energy Act of 1978, including the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA), which required utilities to provide residential consumers with energy conservation audits and other services to encourage slower growth of electricity demand, and was intended to promote renewable energy with the result of promoting mainly co-generation;
• the Energy Policy Act of 1992 which provided further incentives for energy efficiency and removed obstacles to wholesale competition; and
• the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 which phased out incandescent light bulbs.

Many state governments have been active in promoting renewable energy. For example, in 2007 25 states and the District of Columbia had established renewable portfolio standards (RPS). There is no federal policy on RPS.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is in charge of regulating interstate electricity sales, wholesale electric rates, and licensing hydropower plants. Rates for electricity distribution are regulated by state-level Public Utilities Commissions or Public Services Commissions.

Deregulation and competition

Deregulation of the electricity sector consists in the introduction of competition and the unbundling of vertically integrated utilities in separate entities in charge of electricity generation, electricity transmission, electricity distribution and commercialization. The deregulation of the electricity sector in the U.S. began with the Energy Policy Act of 1992 which removed obstacles for wholesale competition. In practice, however, regulation has been unevenly introduced between states. It began in earnest only from 1996 onwards when the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued orders that required utilities to provide transmission services "on a reasonable and non-discriminatory basis". In some states, such as in California, private utilities were required to sell some of their power plants to prevent concentration of market power.

As of April 2014, 16 U.S. states – Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Texas – and the District of Columbia have deregulated their electricity markets in some capacity. Additionally, seven states – Arizona, Arkansas, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Virginia, and Wyoming – started electricity deregulation in some capacity but have since suspended deregulation. The deregulation of the Texas electricity market in 2002 is one of the better-known examples. The result has been that the different states with in United States have a wide spectrum of different levels of deregulation. Some states only allow large commercial customers to choose a different supplier, some allow all consumers to choose. Contrary to the largely similar methods of deregulation for natural gas, different states have taken very different approaches to electricity deregulation.

Service provision

Electric utilities in the U.S. can be both in charge of electricity generation and electricity distribution. The electricity transmission network is not owned by individual utilities, but by companies and organizations that are obliged to provide indiscriminate access to various suppliers to promote competition. In 1996, there were 3,195 electric utilities in the United States and 65 power marketers. Of these, 2,020 were publicly owned (including 10 Federal utilities), 932 were rural electric cooperatives, and 243 were investor-owned utilities. Fewer than 1,000 utilities are engaged in power generation.

Generation

About 80% of the electricity in the U.S. is generated by private ("investor-owned") utilities. The remaining electricity is produced by the public sector. This includes federal agencies such as the Tennessee Valley Authority (producing mainly nuclear and hydropower), and Power Marketing Administrations of the Department of Energy, one of which is the Bonneville Power Administration (in the Pacific Northwest)(hydropower). It also includes municipal utilities and utility cooperatives.

The largest private electric producers in the United States include:

• AES Corporation
• Southern Company, 42 GW
• American Electric Power, 38 GW
• Duke Energy, 58.2 GW
• Luminant, 18 GW
• Reliant Energy, 14 GW
• Pacific Gas and Electric Company, 7.7 GW
• Vistra, 41 GW

Transmission

There are two major wide area synchronous grids in North America, the Eastern Interconnection and the Western Interconnection. Besides this there are two minor power grids in the U.S., the Alaska Interconnection and the Texas Interconnection. The Eastern, Western and Texas Interconnections are tied together at various points with DC interconnects allowing electrical power to be transmitted throughout the contiguous U.S., parts of Canada and parts of Mexico. The transmission grids are operated by transmission system operators (TSOs), not-for profit companies that are typically owned by the utilities in their respective service area, where they coordinate, control and monitor the operation of the electrical power system. TSOs are obliged to provide non-discriminatory transmission access to electricity generators and customers. TSOs can be of two types: Independent System Operators (ISOs) and Regional Transmission Organizations (RTOs). The former operates within a single state and the latter covers wider areas crossing state borders.

In 2009 there were four RTOs in the U.S.:

• ISO New England (ISO-NE, which is an RTO despite its name);
• Midcontinent Independent System Operator;
• PJM Interconnection in the Mid-Atlantic region; and
• Southwest Power Pool (SPP) covering Oklahoma, Kansas and parts of Arkansas, Missouri, Texas and New Mexico.

There are also three ISOs:

• California Independent System Operator (California ISO);
• New York Independent System Operator (NYISO);
• Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT, an ISO).

RTOs are similar, but not identical to the nine Regional Reliability Councils associated in the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), a non-profit entity that is in charge of improving the reliability and security of the bulk power system in the U.S., Canada and the northern part of Baja California in Mexico. The members of the Regional Reliability Councils include private, public and cooperative utilities, power marketers and final customers. The Regional Reliability Councils are:

• Eastern Interconnection
  • Florida Reliability Coordinating Council (FRCC)
  • Midwest Reliability Organization (MRO)
  • Northeast Power Coordinating Council (NPCC)
  • ReliabilityFirst Corporation (RFC)
  • SERC Reliability Corporation (SERC)
  • Southwest Power Pool (SPP)
• Western Interconnection
  • Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC)
• Texas Interconnection
  • Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT)

The FERC distinguishes between 10 power markets in the U.S., including the seven for which RTOs have been established, well as:

• Northwest
• Southwest (covering Arizona, most of New Mexico and Colorado)
• Southeast

ISOs and RTOs were established in the 1990s when states and regions established wholesale competition for electricity.

Distribution

About 75% of electricity sales to final customers are undertaken by private utilities, with the remainder being sold by municipal utilities and cooperatives.

Economic and financial aspects

Tariffs and affordability

In 2008 the average electricity tariff in the U.S. was 9.82 ¢/kWh, up from 6.9 ¢/kWh in 1995. Residential tariffs were somewhat higher at 11.36 ¢/kWh, while commercial tariffs stood at 10.28 ¢/kWh and industrial tariffs at 7.01 ¢/kWh. The cost of supplying high-voltage power to high-volume industrial customers is lower than the cost of providing low-voltage (120 V) power to residential and commercial customers.

In 2006–07 commercial electricity tariffs in the U.S. (9.28 ¢/kWh) were higher than in Australia (7.1 ¢/kWh), Canada (6.18 ¢/kWh) that relies mainly on hydropower or in France (8.54 ¢/kWh) that relies heavily on nuclear power, but lower than in Germany (13.16 ¢/kWh), Italy (15.74 ¢/kWh) or the UK (11.16 ¢/kWh) that all rely to a larger degree on fossil fuels, all compared at purchasing power parity.

Residential tariffs vary significantly between states from 6.7 ¢/kWh in West Virginia to 24.1 ¢/kWh in Hawaii. An important factor that influences tariff levels is the mix of energy sources used in power generation. For example, access to cheap federal power from hydropower plants contributes to low electricity tariffs in some states.

Average residential electricity consumption in the U.S. was 936 kWh/month per in 2007, and the average bill was US$100/month. Average residential consumption varies considerably between states from 530 kWh/month in Maine to 1,344 kWh/month in Tennessee. Factors that influence residential energy consumption are climate, tariffs and efforts to promote energy conservation.

Revenues

Total revenue from the sale of electricity in 2008 was US$344bn, including US$148bn from residential customers, US$129bn from commercial customers and US$66bn from industrial customers. Many large industries self-generate electricity and their electricity consumption thus is not included in these figures.

Investment

Financing

Most investments in the U.S. electricity sector are financed by private companies through debt and equity. However, some investments are indirectly financed by taxpayers through various subsidies.

Subsidies and tax incentives

There is a large array of subsidies in the U.S. electricity sector ranging from various forms of tax incentives to subsidies for research and development, feed-in tariffs for renewable energy and support to low-income households to pay their electric bills. Some subsidies are available throughout the U.S., while others are only available in some states.

Tax incentives include federal and state tax deductions and tax breaks. Tax incentives can be directed at consumers, such as for the purchase of energy-efficient appliances or for solar energy systems, small wind systems, geothermal heat pumps, and residential fuel cell and microturbine systems. Tax incentives can also be directed at electricity producers, in particular for renewable energy.

The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) received federal funding of $5.1 billion in Fiscal Year 2009. It is funded mainly by the federal government through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, and is administered by states and territories. While some of its funding is for fuel for heating, some is also used to cover electricity bills for both heating and cooling.

In April 2009, 11 U.S. state legislatures were considering adopting feed-in tariffs as a complement to their renewable electricity mandates.