Alabama · Municipal · serves 49 ZIP codes
City of Huntsville - (AL) rate plans
One residential plan is currently open to new customers. It does not price by hour, so shifting when you use power won’t change your bill here.
A household using 1,000 kWh a month pays about $1,517 a year on Schedule RS - Residential, the only residential plan here — $862 at 500 kWh, $2,864 at 2,000 kWh.
What does City of Huntsville - (AL)'s residential rate cost?
City of Huntsville - (AL) files a single residential tariff, so there is no plan to choose between — everyone served here is on the same terms. That makes this page short on comparison and long on one question instead: what does that tariff actually do to a bill?
Priced hour by hour across a full year, a small apartment on this tariff comes to about $738 and a three-bedroom house with central air to about $1,239 — an effective 15.2¢ and 13.1¢ per kilowatt-hour once the fixed charge is spread across everything used.
With one plan and no hourly pricing, the only lever left is using less. Moving laundry or car charging to the middle of the night changes nothing here, which is worth knowing before you rearrange your evenings for no reason.
Expect the bill to swing with the weather rather than with anything you decide: the same house costs around $137 in July and $82 in February. Budget against the higher figure and the summer bill stops being a surprise.
How City of Huntsville compares across Alabama
Run the same three-bedroom house with central air through its default plan at each of the 2 Alabama utilities we cover, and City of Huntsville is the cheapest of the lot at about $1,239 a year; the state median is $1,401. The dearest, Alabama Power, charges $1,564 for identical use — a gap set by the address, not by anything either household did.
The other two households tell the same story in different sizes: a small apartment pays about $738 here against a state median of $818, and the same house with an electric car charging overnight about $1,637 against $1,856. Effective rate, fixed charge included, is 13.1¢ per kilowatt-hour for the family home.
Every Alabama utility we cover, priced for the same three households →
Making sense of the bill
- How to read your electric bill
Four kinds of charge, only two of which you can do anything about.
- Fixed charges on your electric bill: what they are and why they matter
The line that makes cents-per-kilowatt-hour comparisons quietly wrong.
- How to compare electricity plans without getting it wrong
Six things that break a comparison, and the order to check them in.
Schedule RS - Residential
The only residential plan City of Huntsville currently files that we can price — everything about it is on this page.
Does the hour matter on Schedule RS - Residential? No — one rate, every hour of the year.
- off-peak10.91¢
There is no peak and no off-peak here: the price per kilowatt-hour at 3am is the same as at 6pm, on a Sunday as on a Tuesday, in July as in January, though the price does step up once a month’s use passes the tier threshold shown below. Moving laundry or car charging to another time of day will not change this bill by a cent. What does change it is how much you use, and the fixed charge below, which you pay whether you use anything or not.
What does Schedule RS - Residential cost a year?
| Household | Uses | A month | Per year | Works out to |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apartment One or two people, no central air, no electric heat | 4,866 kWh | $61 | $738 | 15.2¢ / kWh |
| Family home Three or four people with central air conditioning | 9,453 kWh | $103 | $1,239 | 13.1¢ / kWh |
| Home with an EV Same house, plus an electric car charging overnight | 13,103 kWh | $136 | $1,637 | 12.5¢ / kWh |
Estimates, not quotes. We run three made-up but realistic households through this tariff hour by hour for a full year — including the way air conditioning loads the afternoon and an EV loads the small hours. Your own bill depends on when you actually use electricity, which is exactly the thing a per-kWh number hides.
What you actually pay
| Period | Rate | Applies when |
|---|---|---|
| off-peak | 10.91¢ up to 1400 kWh11.42¢ | midnight–midnight |
Plus a fixed charge of $17.23 per month.
Should you be on Schedule RS - Residential?
One rate, every hour of the year. That makes this plan predictable and nothing else: there is no cheap window to move laundry or car charging into, and no penalty for running the oven at six in the evening. Predictability is worth something if your schedule is not yours to control — but if it is, a flat rate is the one structure that guarantees you cannot benefit from it.
There is a usage cliff to watch. The first 1400 kWh each month are billed at 10.9¢; past that line the rate steps up to 11.4¢ — 5% more for every unit after. The last kilowatt-hour of a heavy month is the expensive one, which is why cutting a little off a big month saves more than cutting the same amount off a small one.
Before a single kilowatt-hour moves, this plan charges $207 a year in fixed fees. On the apartment above that is 28% of the whole bill; on the house with a car charging in it, 13%. Fixed charges are invisible in a cents-per-kWh comparison and they punish small users hardest — if you use very little electricity, the headline rate is the least important number on this page.
Expect the bill to move with the calendar. The same family home costs about $137 in July and $82 in February — a $55 spread driven by heating and cooling far more than by anything you chose. Budget against the July figure, not the average, and a summer bill stops being a surprise.
Who can be on City of Huntsville’s Schedule RS - Residential?
Eligibility is not our judgement — it is written into the tariff City of Huntsville filed. This is what that document says:
Applicability: Single Family Dwellings. Alternating current, single-phase, 60 hertz. Power shall be delivered at a service voltage available in the vicinity or agreed to by Distributor. Multi-phase service shall be supplied in accordance with Distributor's standard policy.
Quoted from the filed tariff. Your utility decides eligibility, not us; check with them before you switch.
If this is new to you
- How to read your electric bill
Four kinds of charge, only two of which you can do anything about.
- Tiered billing for electricity: why the last kWh costs more
A cheap allowance, then a cliff. Where the cliff sits is the whole game.
- 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.
- Why is my electric bill so high? Seven causes, in the order to check them
Seven causes, ranked by how often they are the answer. Only two are about using more.
Where this comes from
- Effective
- 2026-02-01
the date this tariff took effect
- Covers
- delivery + supply
the ZIP-code service map lists this territory as bundled, so the utility sells delivery and supply together
- Enrollment
- open to new customers
Tariff document: https://www.hsvutil.org/residential_services/residential_rates.php