US homes pay 17.8 cents per kWh at investor-owned utilities and 14.5 at public ones

What the data shows

The analysis uses the EIA's annual utility survey (Form 861) for 2025. Investor-owned utilities charged 17.8¢ per kWh against 14.5¢ at public utilities and 14.1¢ at co-ops. Since 2020, investor-owned prices rose 34% and public prices 19%, with inflation at 24%. The gap holds at about 20% excluding hydro-heavy states and about 17% comparing utilities within the same state. Co-op homes had the highest average bill ($159), mostly because they use more power.

The author is explicit about the limit: the data shows what homes paid, not why, and public utilities benefit from tax-free borrowing and cheap federal hydro.

The thread's objection

A reader in a regulated area asked a precise question: whether any "true private ownership" exists, since their investor-owned utility cannot raise rates without a public commission's approval. That makes the comparison one of regulated models rather than a market versus government.

A commenter from Queensland offered a real-world case of privatisation: prices tracked inflation until the Electricity Board was privatised in 1997, and have since gone up about 75% beyond inflation, despite promises of lower prices. Whether that was ownership or something else is the part the thread could not settle, and the reader's practical question is how their own state regulates the return a utility is allowed to earn.