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Washington electricity cost: among the cheapest power in America
Washington is the low-price anchor of the Pacific — and the standing disproof that a regional average means anything. Residential electricity averaged 11.90¢ per kWh in 2024, the fifth-lowest price in the United States and barely a third of California's 31.97¢, with the July 2026 snapshot at 14.71¢. Washington homes used an above-average 955 kWh a month — electric heat and long northern winters see to that — yet the average monthly bill was just $113.68, about 20% below the U.S. average of $142.26. Cheap units, bought in quantity, still produce a small bill.
| Washington at a glance | Figure (with source period) |
|---|---|
| Average electricity price (2024) | 11.90¢ per kWh — U.S. average 16.48¢ |
| Latest monthly snapshot (July 2026, preliminary) | 14.71¢ per kWh |
| Average electricity use (2024) | 955 kWh per month — U.S. average 863 kWh |
| Average monthly electric bill (2024) | $113.68 — U.S. average $142.26 |
| Pacific Contiguous division price (July 2026) | 27.14¢ per kWh — a blend Washington pulls down and California pulls up |
| Natural gas, residential delivered (2024) | $12.72 per Mcf (about $1.23 per therm) — U.S. average $14.50 |
| Heating oil / propane state averages | Not published by EIA for Washington (neither survey covers the state) |
Enter your own monthly kWh and price them at the Washington average — then price the same usage at the California average to see the Pacific split in one number.
Open the energy cost calculatorHigh usage is affordable when the unit is cheap
Washington's 955 kWh would be a budget problem almost anywhere else; at 11.90¢ it produces one of the lowest bills in the country. The usage itself is structural: a large share of Washington homes heat with electricity, winters are long and dark even where they are mild, and RECS puts Pacific households at just 57.4 MMBtu of site energy a year — the lowest of any division — with spending of $1,653, jointly the lowest, because so much of the region's energy arrives as inexpensive electricity rather than as premium delivered fuels. The July 2026 snapshot deserves its standard caution: 14.71¢ is one preliminary summer month, up from the 11.90¢ annual average, and monthly figures move with season and market in ways the annual Table 5A figure smooths out. Even taken at face value, though, the July snapshot leaves Washington cheaper than the annual average price of most states — the gap between Washington and the expensive coasts is structural, not seasonal.
What cheap power does to electric decisions
At 11.90¢, electricity wins contests it loses elsewhere. Home EV charging, from this site's EV guide: $7.14 for a 60 kWh full charge and $39.67 per 1,000 miles at the labeled 3.0 miles-per-kWh assumption, against $9.89 and $54.93 at the U.S. average — and against $19.18 and $106.57 in California. Electric heat: a million Btu of electricity costs about $34.88 before efficiency (arithmetic on EIA's 3,412 Btu per kWh), so even simple resistance heat is inexpensive in absolute terms, and a heat pump's efficiency multiplier puts electric heat firmly ahead of delivered gas at $12.72 per Mcf — itself a below-average gas price, about $12.27 per million Btu before furnace efficiency, or $1.23 a therm. Washington is thus the rare state where EIA's tables support the all-electric home on fuel cost alone: the Winter Fuels Outlook's West-region winter rows (gas $590, electricity $1,151, November through March) reflect a region where electric heating is common precisely because the per-unit price forgives it.
The surrounding fuels, and the gaps
Delivered gas at $12.72 per Mcf runs 12% below the U.S. average — unremarkable, and in Washington largely beside the point given how much heating the electric meter already carries. For the delivered fuels the official record stops: Washington is in neither EIA's 21-state heating-oil survey nor its 38-state propane survey, so no state average exists for either fuel and this site publishes none — a Washington propane household benchmarking a supplier has only the national survey average ($2.689 a gallon in the week of October 19, 2026, describing surveyed states) as context. The state-level starting point remains our Washington state guide; this page is the electricity deep-dive behind it, and our Pacific page shows the full five-state spread from Washington's 11.90¢ to Hawaii's 42.86¢.
Sources: EIA — Electric Sales, Revenue & Average Price 2024, Table 5A (Form EIA-861) · EIA — Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.A (July 2026) · EIA — Natural Gas Annual 2024, Table 23 (Form EIA-176) · EIA — Heating Oil and Propane Update (week of October 19, 2026) · EIA — Winter Fuels Outlook, October 2026 · EIA — Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS) 2020, Table CE1.1. Last verified: October 2026 — energy prices move with seasons and markets; confirm the current rate on your own bill.
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Washington energy costs (state guide) · Pacific energy costs · California electricity cost in depth · EV home charging cost by state · Electricity prices & average bills by state