The Price Of Electricity In Your State

October 28, 201110:17 AM ET

Editor's note: The map that originally appeared with this story is no longer available because of a technical problem.

The average price people in the U.S. pay for electricity is about 12 cents per kilowatt-hour. (Context: A typical U.S. household uses about 908 kWh a month of electricity.)

But there's huge variation from state to state. Here's a map of residential electricity prices, according to the Energy Information Administration.

People in Hawaii pay the most for electricity, about 33 cents per kWh. A Hawaiian household whose electricity use was around the national average would have a monthly electric bill over $300. The high cost of crude oil used to generate the state's electricity is driving the price, EIA energy economist Tyler Hodge told me.

Idaho had the lowest price, at about 8 cents per kWh. So the typical US household would pay about $73 for electricity each month in Idaho. Hodge says Idaho generates much of its electricity from hydroelectric dams, which require virtually no fuel. Also, the cost of constructing the dams have been spread out over many decades. This all has kept electricity prices in Idaho low.

Rank	State	Price (in cents)
1	Idaho	8.0
2	North Dakota	8.1
3	Washington	8.2
4	Arkansas	8.7
5	Utah	8.8
6	Louisiana	8.9
7	Wyoming	8.9
8	South Dakota	9.0
9	Nebraska	9.0
10	Kentucky	9.0
11	West Virginia	9.2
12	Oklahoma	9.2
13	Oregon	9.4
14	Montana	9.6
15	Missouri	9.7
16	Tennessee	9.8
17	Indiana	10.0
18	North Carolina	10.2
19	Mississippi	10.3
20	Iowa	10.5
21	Kansas	10.5
22	Virginia	10.5
23	New Mexico	10.7
24	Minnesota	10.9
25	South Carolina	11.0
26	Arizona	11.1
27	Georgia	11.1
28	Alabama	11.1
29	Colorado	11.2
30	Ohio	11.2
31	Texas	11.3
32	Illinois	11.7
33	Florida	11.7
34	Nevada	11.7
35	Michigan	13.0
36	Wisconsin	13.0
37	Pennsylvania	13.2
38	Maryland	13.7
39	District of Columbia	13.7
40	Delaware	13.7
41	Massachusetts	14.8
42	Rhode Island	14.9
43	California	15.2
44	Maine	15.5
45	Vermont	16.1
46	New Jersey	16.3
47	New Hampshire	16.5
48	Alaska	17.5
49	Connecticut	18.1
50	New York	18.1
51	Hawaii	33.2