2 utilities compared · 8 plans · 365 ZIP codes
Electricity rates in Michigan
Not a state average. The same household, priced hour by hour for a year on the default plan at each utility we cover here — so the differences below are differences in the tariffs, not in how much anyone used.
What a year of electricity costs in Michigan
| Household | Uses | Median, per year | Cheapest utility | Dearest utility |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apartment One or two people, no central air, no electric heat | 4,866 kWh | $1,094 | $962 | $1,225 |
| Family home Three or four people with central air conditioning | 9,453 kWh | $1,968 | $1,663 | $2,272 |
| Home with an EV Same house, plus an electric car charging overnight | 13,103 kWh | $2,585 | $2,065 | $3,105 |
Median and range across the 2 utilities, each on the plan a household lands on by default. Estimates for comparing utilities against each other, not a prediction of any one bill; they exclude taxes, local surcharges and demand charges.
How much does where you live inside Michigan matter?
Run the same three-bedroom house with central air through the default residential plan at each of the 2 utilities we cover in Michigan, and the yearly bill lands between $1,663 at City of Lansing and $2,272 at DTE Electric; the median is $1,968. That $609 gap is for identical electricity, and it is set by nothing you chose: which utility's territory the house stands in. You cannot switch utilities. What you can do is make sure you are on the right plan at yours.
The utility is fixed by your address; the plan is not. At DTE Electric, the cheapest and dearest of its 7 comparable plans are $724 a year apart for the same house — more than the gap between Michigan's cheapest and dearest utilities. Put differently, the plan you pick at your own utility is worth more than the accident of which utility you have.
Every one of these utilities files at least one plan priced by the hour — 4 such plans in all. That makes Michigan a place where moving laundry, dishes or car charging into the cheap window changes the bill, provided you are on one of those plans; on a flat plan the clock is irrelevant.
Michigan has retail choice: you can buy the supply half of your bill from a competing supplier while the utility still delivers it. The figures on this page price the utility's own default supply, which is what you pay if you never shopped. A third-party offer replaces only that part — the delivery charges and the fixed charge stay with the utility whatever you sign.
Utility by utility
Cheapest first, for the family home. The last two columns are where the money is: how far the default plan sits from the cheapest one the same utility files.
| Utility | Plans | Default plan, a year | Cheapest plan | By the hour |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| City of Lansing Residential Electric Service - Off Peak Savers (TOU) | 1 | $1,663 | only plan | 1 plan |
| DTE Electric Residential Service Rate - (Full Service) - D1 | 7 | $2,272 | $1,548 | 3 plans |
Before you compare anything
- Delivery vs. supply on your electric bill
Half your bill is a service you cannot shop for. Knowing which half matters.
- How to compare electricity plans without getting it wrong
Six things that break a comparison, and the order to check them in.
- Electricity rates by state: what the filed tariffs actually say
Median rates from the tariffs themselves, not a state-level average.