Home power prices up 10% since 2024 become a midterm fight
Residential electricity prices are up more than 10% since 2024, Reuters reports, and utility bills and data centers are now a campaign issue in governor and utility commission races from Ohio to Georgia.
AI-assisted · US Brief desk · Sources listed below
What happened
Home electricity prices have risen more than 10% since 2024, outpacing other prices, Reuters reported Saturday, Oct. 31, citing U.S. Energy Information Administration data. Prices are climbing even faster in Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania, in some cases at triple the rate of inflation, and Ohio residential bills are up more than 20% in two years.
That has pulled utilities, usually a sleepy corner of politics, into Tuesday's midterms. Seats on nine state utility commissions are on the ballot, including in Arizona and Georgia, along with 36 governor races. "It could be the first election to feature utilities and electricity, specifically, as a prominent issue in the midterms," Charles Hua, founder of the advocacy group PowerLines, told Reuters.
The numbers: EIA's October outlook puts the average U.S. residential price at 16.5 cents per kilowatt-hour in 2024 and 17.3 cents in 2025, and projects 18.2 cents in 2026 and 18.7 cents in 2027. In the Middle Atlantic states, EIA projects 24.9 cents this year, up from 22.7 cents. In the East North Central region, which includes Ohio and Michigan, it projects 19.3 cents, up from 17.7 cents.
Why it matters
Utilities are on track to match last year's record of about $31 billion in requested rate increases, according to a PowerLines survey, and last year's total was double the previous record. S&P Global's RRA unit expects about $1.3 trillion in utility capital spending over the next five years, much of it to serve new data centers and replace aging equipment. Those costs are typically recovered through customers' bills.
What’s next
Hua expects the biggest fights to come after the votes are counted, when new governors and commissioners rule on pending rate cases. "I do think the real meat will come after the election," he said.
More context
In Ohio's governor race, Democrat Amy Acton promises lower bills, a public utilities commission "not beholden to utility companies" and a pause on new data centers. Republican Vivek Ramaswamy says Ohioans who live near data centers would not pay electricity bills at all, Reuters reported. Ohio has more than 200 data centers operating, under construction or planned, and signs in Pataskala urge residents to "VOTE YES TO BAN DATA CENTERS," The Wall Street Journal reported.
Governors are already acting. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, got PECO to withdraw a rate increase in April, which he says saves customers up to $34 a month. New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill froze utility bills on her first day in office, and Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger took a similar approach, Reuters reported.
The strongest case for freezes and cuts: Voters are paying more for power every month, and the politicians promising relief argue utilities and big data center customers should carry more of the cost of the grid's expansion instead of households.
The strongest case from the utilities: Freezes and cuts to utilities' allowed profits won't meaningfully lower bills and could reduce long-term grid investment, utility advocates told Reuters. "The grid is America's greatest machine, and it doesn't operate on the political calendar," said Drew Maloney, chief executive of the Edison Electric Institute, the industry's trade group. "It requires consistent investment every year to deliver reliable energy to our customers." Fitch Ratings cut its outlook for the North American utility sector to "deteriorating" in June, citing midterm pressure.
What the evidence shows: No single cause explains the jump. EIA says this year's 11% rise in wholesale power prices, to an average of $52 per megawatt-hour, is "mainly due to weather events, such as winter storm Fern and high summer temperatures," and that home prices also reflect spending on transmission and distribution upgrades and capacity costs. Research from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, reported by Fox News, estimates data centers have so far pushed wholesale prices 2% to 6% higher nationwide.
6 listed sources
- Reuters via Investing.com, Oct. 31, 2026
- U.S. Energy Information Administration, Short-Term Energy Outlook, October 2026
- EIA STEO Table 7c, U.S. regional electricity prices
- Fox News, Aug. 20, 2026
- The Wall Street Journal, Oct. 10, 2026
- The Wall Street Journal, Oct. 26, 2026
References listed by US Brief; a source count is not a verification score.
Editorial sourcing notes
The more-than-10% rise since 2024 is Reuters' reading of U.S. Energy Information Administration data; EIA's October 2026 outlook lists average residential prices of 16.5 cents per kilowatt-hour in 2024 and a projected 18.2 cents in 2026, which works out to about 10%. The $31 billion figure is a PowerLines survey of rate-increase requests, not approved increases. The $34-a-month savings is Gov. Shapiro's own estimate. Campaign promises are reported as the candidates' claims. The hero photo shows data centers near Ashburn, Virginia (file photo, November 2025); the body photo is from Philadelphia in March 2024.
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