Average Electric Bill in South Carolina
Residential · 12-month average, July 2025 – June 2026.
That works out to about $1,973 a year. Among the 50 states and DC, South Carolina has the 15th highest average residential bill.
Data current through June 2026 — the latest available from the U.S. EIA, which publishes monthly figures on a roughly two-month delay.
What makes up the bill
Price × usage = bill, exactly: 15.55¢/kWh × 1,057 kWh ≈ $164. A state can land high on either factor — South Carolina pays below the national rate but uses much more power than average.
Compared with nearby states
| South Carolina | $164 | |
|---|---|---|
| U.S. average | $156 | |
| Georgia | $161 | |
| North Carolina | $151 |
South Carolina is $9 a month above (+5.5%) the U.S. average of $156. Neighboring states share fuel mixes, weather, and often a grid operator, which makes them a closer benchmark than the national average.
Trend since 2008
Each point is a trailing 12-month average, which strips out the summer/winter swing and leaves the underlying trend. Bills start in January 2008 because that is when EIA began reporting customer counts.
Seasonal swing
- Highest month
- $222
- July 2025
- Lowest month
- $128
- November 2025
- Swing
- $94
- peak minus low
- Latest month
- $186
- June 2026
Actual bills are far from flat: South Carolina peaks in July 2025 and bottoms out in November 2025. The headline figure above is the average across all twelve months.
South Carolina electricity bills in context
The average monthly electricity bill in South Carolina is $164, ranking 15th among the 50 states and DC. This figure is $9 higher than the national average of $155, a gap of 5.7%. South Carolina homeowners pay less per kilowatt-hour at 15.48¢/kWh compared with the national rate of 17.84¢/kWh, but they use substantially more electricity—1,061 kWh per month against the national average of 871 kWh. The higher consumption drives the bill above the national level despite the lower rate.
Over the past year, the average bill climbed from $157 to $164, an increase of 4.9%. The longer view shows steeper growth: since May 2021, the bill has risen 17.1%, from $140. Over the full span since December 2008, it has grown 38.7%, from $118. Seasonally, bills peak in July 2025 at $222 and reach their lowest point in November 2025 at $128, a swing of $94 around the twelve-month average.
Among bordering states, North Carolina's average bill of $150 falls below South Carolina's, while Georgia's $161 sits closer but still underneath. South Carolina's electricity costs rank in the middle tier nationally, pulled higher by consumption patterns that exceed those of most other regions.
Written from the EIA figures on this page, covering data through May 2026.
Frequently asked questions
›How much is the average electric bill in South Carolina?
›Is the electric bill in South Carolina higher than the national average?
›Why is electricity expensive in South Carolina?
›When is the electric bill highest in South Carolina?
›How does South Carolina compare with neighboring states?
How this is calculated
EIA’s retail-sales dataset reports, for every state and month, total residential revenue and the number of residential customers served. The average monthly bill is simply the first divided by the second — total spending across all households, spread evenly over all accounts.
bill = revenue ÷ customers · averaged over 12 months (July 2025 – June 2026)
Two caveats worth knowing. It is an average, so it blends apartments with large houses — a typical household in South Carolina may pay well above or below $164. And it counts what was actually billed for electricity, including fixed service charges, so it is not the same as multiplying your own usage by the advertised rate.
Looking for the rate rather than the bill? See South Carolina electricity prices by sector.