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Why Is Electricity So Expensive in Connecticut?

Rate data through May 2026 (the latest month EIA has published) · Updated August 21, 2026

As of May 2026, Connecticut's average residential electricity rate is 27.37¢/kWh, the 8th-highest of the 51 states and DC and 48% above the U.S. average of 18.44¢/kWh, per EIA data. The average monthly bill is $146.04 at 534 kWh of usage. The measured reasons are below, each with its source and date; where a claim is an association rather than a measured cost, this page says so.

Average rate, May 2026

27.37¢

per kWh; U.S. average 18.44¢

Average bill

$146.04

at 534 kWh/mo (U.S.: $135.70 at 736 kWh)

Change, 12 months

−13.4%

U.S. average: +6.2%

Change, 10 years

+26%

21.64¢ (May 2016) → 27.37¢/kWh; U.S.: +44%

The ten-year picture

Source: EIA retail sales, residential sector, monthly (rate = revenue ÷ sales). Connecticut detail, including the last twelve months as a table, is on the Connecticut rates page.

What Connecticut's electricity is made from

Source	Share of in-state generation, 2024
Natural gas	58.2%
Nuclear (Millstone)	37.7%
Solar (utility + rooftop)	4.4%

Computed from EIA electric-power operational data (all sectors, including small-scale solar), 2024. Shares can exceed or fall short of 100% in combination because only the largest sources are listed. Connecticut generates more electricity than it consumes and exports the surplus to the rest of New England (EIA state energy data, 2024).

The measured drivers

The New England gas-price problem, shared

Connecticut's own generation is 58% natural gas and 38% nuclear (2024, EIA), and it sells surplus power into the same ISO New England market as its neighbors. Wholesale prices across New England carry the region's high winter delivered-gas costs, so even a net-exporting state pays the regional price.

Public-policy charges on the bill

Compliance with Connecticut's renewable portfolio standard cost the equivalent of 5.6% of the average electric bill in 2024, up from 3.7% in 2016 (Barbose, LBNL, RPS Status Update, 2025). This is a measured compliance cost from utility filings, not a modeled estimate.

Rising regional delivery costs

ISO New England transmission costs rose about 0.8 cents per kilowatt-hour in real terms over 2019–2025 (LBNL/Brattle, 2026 Edition; a regional series). United Illuminating's 2025 rate-case decision is in our docket-verified rate-case ledger.

The in-state spread

The state average also hides differences between utilities. Among Connecticut's large utilities (at least 50,000 residential customers), United Illuminating Co averages 32.80¢/kWh while Connecticut Light & Power Co averages 27.33¢/kWh, a ratio of 1.2× (May 2026, computed from EIA-861M). Which utility serves you matters as much as which state you live in; the Connecticut page lists them all.

Analysis: what a 50-state comparison shows. Across all 50 states in 2025 data, the strongest cross-state correlates of high rate levels are deep net-metering penetration (Connecticut: 5.6% of retail sales offset in 2024, per LBNL) and long memory: states that were expensive in 2001 are almost all expensive today. Higher utility-scale wind and solar shares are associated with lower average prices, and belonging to a regional wholesale market (RTO) shows no statistically significant effect. These are associations across states, not causal estimates: high prices themselves push customers toward rooftop solar, so part of the association runs in reverse. One directly measured policy cost: renewable-standard compliance equal to 5.6% of the average bill in 2024 (Barbose, LBNL, 2025).

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