Average Electric Bill in South Dakota
Residential · 12-month average, September 2025 – August 2026.
That works out to about $1,697 a year. Among the 50 states and DC, South Dakota has the 34th highest average residential bill.
Data current through August 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: 14.30¢/kWh × 989 kWh ≈ $141. A state can land high on either factor — South Dakota pays below the national rate but uses much more power than average.
Compared with nearby states
| South Dakota | $141 | |
|---|---|---|
| U.S. average | $158 | |
| North Dakota | $133 | |
| Nebraska | $123 | |
| Minnesota | $121 | |
| Iowa | $121 | |
| Wyoming | $115 | |
| Montana | $115 |
South Dakota is $17 a month below (-10.7%) the U.S. average of $158. 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
- $176
- July 2026
- Lowest month
- $115
- October 2025
- Swing
- $61
- peak minus low
- Latest month
- $160
- August 2026
Actual bills are far from flat: South Dakota peaks in July 2026 and bottoms out in October 2025. The headline figure above is the average across all twelve months.
South Dakota electricity bills in context
South Dakota's average monthly electricity bill is $141 for the twelve-month period from September 2025 through August 2026, ranking 34th out of the 50 states and DC—closer to the cheaper end of the nation. This bill sits $17 below the national average of $158. South Dakota achieves this lower cost through a combination of below-average rates and higher usage: residents pay 14.30¢/kWh against the national average of 18.07¢/kWh, while consuming 989 kWh per month compared with the national average of 876 kWh per month. The lower rate pulls the bill down; the higher usage pulls it up, with the rate effect dominating.
Over the past year, South Dakota's bill rose 6% from $133, a modest increase. Looking further back, the bill has grown substantially: it was $125 in August 2021 and stood at just $84 in December 2008, representing increases of 13.3% and 69.2% respectively since those dates. Seasonally, the bill peaks at $176 in July 2026 and falls to $115 in October 2025, a swing of $61 around the twelve-month average.
Among the six bordering states, South Dakota's bill exceeds all of them. North Dakota averages $133, Nebraska $123, Minnesota and Iowa each $121, and both Wyoming and Montana $115, making South Dakota's bill the highest among its neighbors.
Written from the EIA figures on this page, covering data through August 2026.
Frequently asked questions
›How much is the average electric bill in South Dakota?
›Is the electric bill in South Dakota higher than the national average?
›Why is electricity relatively cheap in South Dakota?
›When is the electric bill highest in South Dakota?
›How does South Dakota 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 (September 2025 – August 2026)
Two caveats worth knowing. It is an average, so it blends apartments with large houses — a typical household in South Dakota may pay well above or below $141. 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 Dakota electricity prices by sector.