Key US electricity price and output trends so far in 2025

Reuters

23-07-2025

LITTLETON, Colorado, July 23 (Reuters) - The first half of 2025 featured a slew of U.S. electricity and power milestones, with generation, demand and retail prices all scaling records during January to June.
Below are key data points that track ongoing changes to the U.S. power and electricity sectors, which are being buffeted by historic swings in federal energy policies, rapid clean power deployment and surging consumer and business electricity demand.
U.S. electricity production during January to June hit a record in 2025 as output from solar and wind farms scaled all-time highs.
Total utility-supplied electricity production during January to June was 2,188 terawatt hours (TWh), which was the highest total on record for the January to June period and up 4% from the same months in 2024, data from Ember shows.
A 32% year-over-year surge in solar output, along with record wind farm generation, helped drive clean-energy electricity supplies up 6% from a year ago to 989 TWh.
Clean power sources secured a record 45.2% share of total electricity supplies during January to June, compared to a 44.2% share during the same months a year ago.
Fossil fuels generated 1,199 TWh of electricity during January to June, or 54.8% of the total.
Output from natural gas power plants, which are the largest single power source in the U.S., declined by 4% from the year before following a climb in gas prices early in 2025.
To compensate for that drop in gas power, utilities bumped coal-fired power output up 17% during January to June from the same months in 2024. Coal accounted for 16% of power generation, the highest levels for the opening half of the year since 2022.
U.S. retail electricity prices also scaled new highs this year, with the price across major U.S. cities averaging 18.2 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh) during the opening half of the year, data from the U.S. Federal Reserve system shows.
A combination of factors has been driving U.S. electricity costs steadily higher in recent years, including sustained electricity demand growth from data centers, AI applications, electric vehicles and air conditioners.
The average electricity price in June 2025 was 6.7% above the rate in June 2024, which means that household electricity costs have climbed at more than twice the pace of overall U.S. consumer price inflation over that period.
In addition to reflecting rising power demand, electricity costs have also climbed due to soaring spending by utilities to upgrade aging power grids which are struggling to accommodate the higher loads as well as growing volumes of renewable power.
U.S. President Donald Trump has blamed the policies of previous president Joe Biden for fuelling much of the growth in electricity prices, arguing that the subsidized deployment of renewable power supplies has raised costs for utilities.
Republican lawmakers have cited the high electricity prices in California - which has the country's most aggressive clean energy targets - as proof that clean energy goals raise consumer energy bills, and as justification for gutting clean energy support in the latest government budget.
Yet electricity price trends so far in 2025 indicate that several states with above-average clean energy supply shares have seen prices fall from a year ago, while states with stout opposition to clean energy have seen prices rise.
In California, which has the highest electricity prices of all states, electricity costs have averaged around 31.5 cents/kWh this year compared to just over 32 cents/kWh in 2024, data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) shows.
Electricity prices have also declined from a year ago in Iowa, Kansas and Nevada, which have all sharply lifted the supplies of clean power in electricity generation so far this decade.
In contrast, states with energy systems that have stifled the growth of clean energy supplies have seen electricity costs rise by far more than the national average so far in 2025.
Average prices in Florida - which has banned wind power generation and restricts state support for solar power - have risen by 5% so far this year, to around 14.94 cents/kWh from 14.25 cents/kWh in 2024.
Indiana, Tennessee, South Carolina and Wisconsin have also seen electricity costs rise by more than the U.S. average so far this year, and have also posted much slower clean energy supply growth than California so far this decade.
On average, electricity prices in those states continue to hold below the national average, which was around 16.75 cents/kWh so far this year.
But with power demand rising in all states, all utilities will be on the hook to deliver much-needed grid upgrades over the coming years.
Some states with large supplies of power from solar and wind farms may be able to avoid further steep electricity price increases over the near term, as generation costs from renewables can be far lower than from fossil fuel plants.
But in areas with little to no clean power supplies, utilities may have no choice but to raise consumer electricity costs in order to fund the continued operations of their fossil power plants and make necessary system upgrades.
Those utilities will also likely increase their exposure to fossil fuel prices going forward as federal support for clean energy supplies are scrapped and remaining policy measures funnel power expansion options towards fossil fuels.
That means that any further increases in gas and coal costs due to rising power demand may also be passed on to consumers, and could further accelerate the rise in customer energy bills in areas that lack significant clean energy supplies.
The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters.
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