6 utilities compared · 25 plans · 372 ZIP codes
Electricity rates in Washington
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 Washington
| Household | Uses | Median, per year | Cheapest utility | Dearest utility |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apartment One or two people, no central air, no electric heat | 4,866 kWh | $791 | $668 | $1,154 |
| Family home Three or four people with central air conditioning | 9,453 kWh | $1,180 | $1,020 | $2,083 |
| Home with an EV Same house, plus an electric car charging overnight | 13,103 kWh | $1,508 | $1,299 | $2,858 |
Median and range across the 6 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 Washington matter?
Run the same three-bedroom house with central air through the default residential plan at each of the 6 utilities we cover in Washington, and the yearly bill lands between $1,020 at PUD No 1 of Cowlitz County and $2,083 at Puget Sound Energy; the median is $1,180. That is a 2.0× gap for identical electricity, decided by where in Washington 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 Puget Sound Energy, the cheapest and dearest of its 6 comparable plans are $424 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.
1 of the 6 utilities files at least one plan priced by the hour (4 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.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PUD No 1 of Cowlitz County Residential Service Schedule 1 Single Phase | 2 | $1,020 | none cheaper | — |
| PUD 1 of Snohomish County Schedule 7 - Residential Service | 1 | $1,149 | only plan | — |
| City of Tacoma Residential Service - Schedule A-1 | 6 | $1,166 | none cheaper | — |
| Peninsula Light Residential | 1 | $1,193 | only plan | — |
| City of Seattle Schedule RSC - Residential: Seattle | 9 | $1,466 | none cheaper | — |
| Puget Sound Energy 7 (Residential Service - Three Phase) | 6 | $2,083 | $1,957 | 4 plans |
Before you compare anything
- Should you switch to a time-of-use electricity plan?
A wide peak-to-off-peak gap is a lever, not a saving. Levers need something to move.
- 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.