Kentucky Electricity Rates per kWh: KU, LG&E and Kentucky Power Compared

Three Kentucky utilities won increases within two weeks, and they are rarely compared. We put them on one table, explain Kentucky Power’s new two-tier price, and set out what August’s rehearing order actually settled, including why KU and LG&E can now file again.

Three decisions in two weeks, on one table

In February 2026 the Public Service Commission decided the rate cases of Kentucky’s three big investor-owned utilities. Reported one at a time, they look alike. Side by side, they do not.

Dividing the bill by the usage gives about 13.1¢ per kWh for KU and 16.1¢ for Kentucky Power, on base bills as each order states them. LG&E’s figure is electric only. Kentucky Power has an extra 0.76% coming after the first year, because a tax credit used to lower bills early runs out.

East Kentucky Power Cooperative, which supplies 16 co-ops across 89 counties, won its own increase on 23 April, about $5 a month from 1 May.

Kentucky Power’s two-tier experiment

The most unusual change is in eastern Kentucky. Because many Kentucky Power homes use a great deal in some months, the Commission approved a new two-tier design. The energy price is 15.6321¢ per kWh for the first 600 kWh and 11.7555¢ above that. Higher-usage customers pay a $38 customer charge rather than $24.

The Commission’s aim is to level bills and ease costs for the heaviest users. A low-use home, by contrast, pays the higher tier on every kWh. The Commission also ordered an independent management audit of the company. It cited about 12,000 fewer residential customers in 14 years and a 38% fall in industrial use. The Commission partly granted a rehearing on 9 April.

What the August order settled

KU and LG&E did not accept February’s result. The Commission had rejected a stay-out promise, which would have kept them from a new case before August 2028, along with a mechanism adjusting rates in 2027 and 2028. So the utilities withdrew from their settlement and asked the Commission to reconsider. On 14 August it issued a long order.

The main claims failed. The Commission refused to reinstate the settlement, refused the adjustment clause and kept the 9.775% return on equity rather than the 9.90% sought. It did grant several smaller accounting items, set revised rates from the order’s date and closed the case. We could not find a published effect on a home’s bill. The practical result is that no stay-out binds either utility, and the Attorney General warned a new case could come soon. We have booked a check.

Adding up the adjustment lines

A Kentucky bill has a customer charge, an energy charge and adjustment lines that change monthly. Divide the total by the kWh, or add every per-kWh line. If you are on Kentucky Power, see which side of 600 kWh most of your months fall. The utility menu fills in a 2025 average.

KU, LG&E, Kentucky Power, Duke and the co-ops

On EIA’s 2025 averages, KU charged 11.90¢, LG&E 12.42¢, Duke Energy Kentucky 13.86¢ and Kentucky Power 15.95¢, the highest of the four.

EIA-861 for 2025: each utility’s revenue from homes divided by the kWh they used, so monthly charges are spread into the price.

Most rural homes buy from a co-op. Salt River Electric charged 10.94¢, the lowest large figure, and South Kentucky RECC 13.55¢, both East Kentucky Power owners. In the south and west, Warren RECC, Pennyrile and West Kentucky RECC buy from TVA and charged 12.67¢, 13.86¢ and 14.17¢. Kenergy charged 16.29¢, the highest here.

Two peaks a year

January’s 1,464 kWh tops July’s 1,394, and April is far below both at 811. On use Kentucky is 6th of 51, yet the yearly bill is only 29th. In the latest year January 2026 ($209) cost the most and October 2025 ($112) the least.

From 8.6¢ to 14¢

8.57¢ in 2010 was among the lowest in the country. The last 12 months averaged 13.95¢, 63% higher, a faster rise than in most states, with a record of 15.02¢ in April 2026. Steady gains reached 10.9¢ by 2020, then 12.9¢ in 2022. Kentucky has stayed below the US in every year of the series.

Only Tennessee is cheaper nearby

Kentucky is 41st of 51 and 3rd of the 4 East South Central states. Tennessee was about 0.3¢ cheaper. The gap widens with distance: about 0.9¢ to Mississippi, 2.5¢ to Alabama, 3¢ to Indiana and 4.5¢ to Ohio, all dearer.

Across the border: Tennessee 13.61¢, Missouri 13.97¢, West Virginia 15.53¢, Virginia 16.64¢, Indiana 16.90¢, Ohio 18.42¢, Illinois 18.91¢.

All 50 states and DC on one page, with a map.

Reading the three orders

The Commission gives Kentucky Power’s figures itself; KU’s and LG&E’s come from reports of the February orders. The energy prices in our tier table leave out riders and the customer charge. Monthly moves of 8% or more cluster in spring, such as March 2026 up about 11%, when use is falling from its winter high.

Figures to August 2026 (EIA marks recent months preliminary), utility figures for 2025, refreshed 3 November 2026. How every number in this series is made and checked.

• Kentucky, every month since 2010 (CSV): price per kWh, kWh and bill per home, and the US price.
• Every state, DC and the US (CSV)
• Everything above with the utility and supplier figures (JSON)

EIA data is in the public domain: credit the U.S. Energy Information Administration. A link back is welcome.

Questions

Electricity rates in other states

Version history

• 2.0 (6 November 2026): rebuilt around the three February 2026 orders on one table, Kentucky Power’s two-tier rate and the August rehearing order.
• 1.0.1 (November 2026): wording and page heading tidied; no figures changed.
• 1.0 (November 2026): first published.