Utilities
Utilities
Electric Utility Rates
37,133 rates have been contributed for 3,908 EIA-recognized utility companies.
Number of Utility Companies by State
Click on a state to view summaries for that state.
Utility Rate Database Description
Rates are also extremely important to the energy analysis community for accurately determining the value and economics of distributed generation such as solar and wind power. In the past, collecting rates has been an effort duplicated across many institutions. Rate collection can be tedious and slow, however, with the introduction of the URDB, OpenEI aims to change how analysis of rates is performed. The URDB allows anyone to access these rates in a computer-readable format for use in their tools and models. OpenEI provides an API for software to automatically download the appropriate rates, thereby allowing detailed economic analysis to be done without ever having to directly handle complex rate structures. Essentially, rate collection and processing that used to take weeks or months can now be done in seconds!
NREL’s System Advisor Model (formerly Solar Advisor Model or SAM), currently has the ability to communicate with the OpenEI URDB over the internet. SAM can download any rate from the URDB directly into the program, thereby enabling users to conduct detailed studies on various power systems ranging in size from a small residential rooftop solar system to large utility scale installations. Other applications available at NREL, such as OpenPV and IMBY, will also utilize the URDB data.
Upcoming features include better support for entering net metering parameters, maps to summarize the data, geolocation capabilities, and hundreds of additional rates!
Utility Rate Database Visualization
This visualization shows OpenEI utility rate coverage as of December 3rd, 2012. This utility rate data is unrelated to the utility data access map.
How Can the Utility Rate Database be Used?
Using the System Advisor Model with the URDB enables users to perform economic analyses of energy systems. The Impacts of Utility Rates and Building Type on the Economics of Commercial Photovoltaic Systems evaluates solar value for different rate structures across the United States.
The results of this study can be found at Impact of Utility Rates on PV Economics - Digital Appendix.
Average Energy Prices
Map of average US residential electricity price by utility service territory (EIA 2010 data).
This section of OpenEI has a dedicated community! Visit the utility rate community to ask a question or view discussions around utility rates!
Looking for a list of all U.S. utilities by zip code? Click here to download the data as a csv. Note: This file includes average rates for each utility, but not the detailed rate structure data found in the database above.
How does your electric utility compare with others on accessibility to your energy data?
Dive into the maps and info pages to see what data your utility provides you! These maps give ratings to utility companies on how easy it is to access information such as energy use and prices.
Utility company representatives, please fill out the questionnaire to have your electric utility represented on the map.
System Advisor Model
NREL's System Advisor Model now integrates with OpenEI's 37133 utility rates, which aids analysis of simple net metered rates as well as complex rate structures that include time-of-use rates, demand charges, tiered rates, fixed monthly fees, adjustment riders, and separate buy and sell rates.
Visit the OpenEI EERE Tech Portal page for lists of all licensing opportunities