5 utilities compared · 17 plans · 1,895 ZIP codes
Electricity rates in New York
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 New York
| Household | Uses | Median, per year | Cheapest utility | Dearest utility |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apartment One or two people, no central air, no electric heat | 4,866 kWh | $1,137 | $1,041 | $2,367 |
| Family home Three or four people with central air conditioning | 9,453 kWh | $1,938 | $1,827 | $4,344 |
| Home with an EV Same house, plus an electric car charging overnight | 13,103 kWh | $2,575 | $2,452 | $5,917 |
Median and range across the 5 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 New York matter?
Run the same three-bedroom house with central air through the default residential plan at each of the 5 utilities we cover in New York, and the yearly bill lands between $1,827 at Niagara Mohawk Power and $4,344 at Central Hudson Gas & Elec; the median is $1,938. That is a 2.4× gap for identical electricity, decided by where in New York the house stands and nothing else. No plan choice at a single utility closes a gap that size — but inside each one there is usually still money on the table.
The utility is fixed by your address; the plan is not. At Central Hudson Gas & Elec, the cheapest and dearest of its 2 comparable plans are $760 a year apart for the same house — less than the gap between utilities, but it is the one lever that is actually yours to pull.
4 of the 5 utilities file at least one plan priced by the hour (10 plans in all). If yours is one of them, shifting when you use power is worth real money; if not, only the total matters and the plan list is short.
New York 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Niagara Mohawk Power SC1- Zone A · Zone A | 1 | $1,827 | only plan | — |
| New York State Elec & Gas WEST - SERVICE CLASSIFICATION NO. 1 - RESIDENTIAL SERVICE NSS | 9 | $1,879 | none cheaper | 6 plans |
| Rochester Gas & Electric SERVICE CLASSIFICATION NO. 1 - RESIDENTIAL SERVICE RSS (Non-Retail Access Choice) | 3 | $1,938 | $1,816 | 2 plans |
| Consolidated Edison Co-NY SC-1 - Residential & Religious Service - Zone H [Westchester] · Zone H · Westchester | 2 | $3,344 | $3,327 | 1 plan |
| Central Hudson Gas & Elec S.C. No. 1 Residential | 2 | $4,344 | $3,584 | 1 plan |
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.