How to compare electricity plans without getting it wrong

Every comparison shortcut fails for a specific, knowable reason. Here they are in the order they are likely to bite you.

1. Are you comparing the same thing?

A tariff that covers only delivery will look dramatically cheaper than one covering the whole bill, because it is only part of the bill. If you are in a retail choice state, a supplier’s advertised rate covers supply only and must be compared against your utility’s price to compare, not against your total per-kilowatt-hour cost. This is the single most expensive mistake available, and we have a guide to it.

Everything on this site is an all-inclusive tariff, so comparisons here are like for like.

2. Have you added the fixed charge?

A plan at 12¢ with a $25 monthly fee beats a plan at 14¢ with an $8 fee only above roughly 850 kWh a month. Below that it loses. The median plan in our index charges $196 a year in fixed fees — real money that no per-kilowatt-hour comparison contains. See fixed charges.

3. Which tier will you actually be in?

209 of our plans are tiered, and the advertised rate is almost always the first tier — the cheap one you leave behind in week two of August. What matters is your blended rate across the tiers you will genuinely reach.

4. Which hours do you use electricity?

On the 233 time-of-use plans we track, the same annual consumption produces wildly different bills depending on when it happens. A household that is out all day and one that works from home will get opposite answers from the same two plans. There is no way to shortcut this: you have to price your own shape.

5. Which zone are you in?

Several large utilities split their territory into rate zones — PG&E’s baseline regions, Con Edison’s load zones — and the same schedule name costs different amounts in each. Your zone is set by your address, so a cheaper plan in a different zone is not an option you have. We group plans by zone on every utility page and only compare within one.

6. Can you actually sign up?

A significant number of tariffs in the source database are closed to new customers — grandfathered rates that existing customers keep and nobody new can join. Some are excellent deals, which is exactly why they were closed. We check the tariff text for enrollment language and state the answer on every rate page.

A workable procedure

1. Find your rate schedule name on your bill and look it up in our index. This is your baseline — what you pay now.
2. Note your annual kilowatt-hours from the bill’s twelve-month chart, and roughly what runs on electricity: air conditioning, heating, water heater, car.
3. Open your utility page and use the calculator. It prices every plan at that utility against the same household so the comparison is internally consistent.
4. Check the top two or three candidates individually for enrollment status, zone, and any demand charge.
5. If your utility offers a rate comparison based on your actual smart-meter data, run that too before switching. It is more accurate than any estimate built from a monthly total.

What our estimates can and cannot tell you

The distinction matters. Because the same modeled household goes through every plan, much of the error cancels out and what remains is the difference in rate structure — which is the thing you are trying to see. An absolute prediction of your next bill is a different and much harder problem, and anyone claiming to solve it from a monthly total is guessing.