Average Electric Bill in Tennessee
Residential · 12-month average, September 2025 – August 2026.
That works out to about $1,952 a year. Among the 50 states and DC, Tennessee has the 18th 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: 13.60¢/kWh × 1,196 kWh ≈ $163. A state can land high on either factor — Tennessee pays below the national rate but uses much more power than average.
Compared with nearby states
| Tennessee | $163 | |
|---|---|---|
| U.S. average | $158 | |
| Alabama | $188 | |
| Virginia | $177 | |
| Mississippi | $174 | |
| Georgia | $164 | |
| Kentucky | $155 | |
| North Carolina | $154 | |
| Missouri | $147 | |
| Arkansas | $143 |
Tennessee is $4 a month above (+2.7%) 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
- $206
- August 2026
- Lowest month
- $120
- November 2025
- Swing
- $85
- peak minus low
- Latest month
- $206
- August 2026
Actual bills are far from flat: Tennessee peaks in August 2026 and bottoms out in November 2025. The headline figure above is the average across all twelve months.
Tennessee electricity bills in context
Tennessee's average residential electricity bill is $163 per month, ranking 18th most expensive of the 50 states and DC. This bill runs $5 higher than the national average of $158, though Tennessee pays 13.60¢/kWh—well below the national rate of 18.07¢/kWh. Homes here use 1,196 kWh per month on average, which is 320 kWh more than the national average of 876 kWh. The higher usage rather than price accounts for the above-average bill.
Over the past year ending in August 2026, the monthly bill rose 3.7%, from $157 to $163. Looking back further, the bill has grown substantially: since August 2021 it increased 26.2% from $129, and since December 2008 it has climbed 40.2% from $116.
Seasonally, bills vary sharply. August 2026 saw the peak at $206, while November 2025 brought the lowest at $120—a swing of $86 around the twelve-month average. Among bordering states, Tennessee's bill sits between Kentucky and North Carolina, which are both cheaper, and Georgia, which costs slightly more at $164. Arkansas at $143 and Missouri at $147 are considerably less expensive, while Alabama at $188 and Virginia at $177 are notably higher.
Written from the EIA figures on this page, covering data through August 2026.
Frequently asked questions
›How much is the average electric bill in Tennessee?
›Is the electric bill in Tennessee higher than the national average?
›Why is electricity relatively cheap in Tennessee?
›When is the electric bill highest in Tennessee?
›How does Tennessee 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 Tennessee may pay well above or below $163. 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 Tennessee electricity prices by sector.