By Hank Russell
A recent study by The Empire Center for Public Policy found that New York State has the sixth-highest electricity prices in the nation. In addition, the price of electricity exceeds the national average.
Based on data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the price of electricity during the month of January is 27.38 cents per kilowatt hour. The five other states with higher prices include Hawaii (39.79 ct/kWh), Massachusetts (31.16 ct/kWh), Maine (30.73 ct/kWh), California (30.29 ct/kWh) and Rhode Island (30.14 ct/kWh). North Dakota has the lowest electricity prices with 10.92 cents per kilowatt hour.
The Empire Center also found that New York’s price is higher than the national average at 17.45 cents per kilowatt hour.
Data also showed that New York’s electricity prices were up 3.6% from December 2025, when it was 27.4 ct/kWh, and saw a 12.0% increase over the previous January’s price of 25.3 ct/kWh. Since January 2019, when it was at 17.3 ct/kWh, electricity prices in the state shot up 64.0%. Only California had a larger increase over that six-year period, with 65.4%.
New York’s electricity prices have consistently exceeded the U.S. average. Over the past two decades, according to the think tank, the gap narrowed steadily — from 80 percent in 2001 to 40 percent by 2019. Since then, that trend has reversed. As of January 2026, the dollar gap between New York and the national average was the largest since 2001.
“Even before the war in Iran, New Yorkers were suffering from some of the highest electricity prices in the U.S.,” said Zilvinas Silenas, president of the Empire Center. “Instead of complaining about the Trump administration and data centers, state legislators should be looking in the mirror and focusing on what they are doing that makes electricity in New York more expensive than in nearly every other state, including New Jersey and Pennsylvania.”