LADWP Electric Rates: The Price per kWh, and Why It Keeps Rising Without a Rate Increase

This page covers electricity from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, the city-owned utility. LADWP’s prices are not set by the California Public Utilities Commission, which sets the rates of SCE and PG&E. Under its rate ordinance, LADWP’s Board of Water and Power Commissioners fixes each rate and the City Council approves it by ordinance. Every price below is built from LADWP’s own documents. The official tables are on LADWP’s residential rates page.

Work out your bill

Start with the kWh figure on your LADWP bill, then say whether that bill covers one month or two. Many LADWP homes get a bill every two months, and the tiers double to match. Type your ZIP code to find your zone, or pick it. You get the bill twice: at this quarter’s prices and at last summer’s, when Tier 3 costs much more. The last two rows show the same use on the other rate, so you can see whether time of use would pay. To find where the kWh go, try our appliance electricity cost calculator.

What is in the price of a kWh

Of the 27.29¢ you pay for a Tier 1 kWh outside summer, only 7.142¢ of that is LADWP’s base energy charge. The other 20.15¢ is seven adjustment factors, each with its own job and its own formula in the rate ordinance. Three have not moved for years: the Energy Cost Adjustment and the Reliability Cost Adjustment were capped at their November 2010 levels when the 2016 ordinance was written, and the Electric Subsidy Adjustment, which pays for Lifeline and low-income credits, is tiny. Four move, and they are the reason bills have risen. The table puts the first quarter on LADWP’s factor page, January to March 2025, beside today.

From LADWP’s adjustment billing factors and the 1 July 2019 rate summary. Each total matches the Total Consumption Charge on LADWP’s residential rates page to the hundred-thousandth of a dollar. What each factor pays for is from LADWP’s factor page and its Board letters.

The biggest mover is the Incremental Reliability Cost Adjustment, the IRCA. It pays for the Power System Reliability Program: poles, cables, transformers and substations. LADWP resets it each July, and it has gone from 4.208¢ a kWh in July 2024 to 6.934¢. LADWP’s own letter for July 2026 put that year’s step at $4.29 a month for its 300 kWh median home. The letter says the reliability factors will recover about 26% of the Power System’s revenue requirement in 2026–27.

Why bills rose with no rate increase

LADWP sets its base rates through a rate ordinance, and the last one, passed in 2016 as Ordinance No. 184133, stepped prices up each July from 2016 to 2019. There has been no new one since. What moved instead is the part of the price that the ordinance lets LADWP reset by formula. The energy cost factors, which pay for fuel, power LADWP buys from others and renewable power, are worked out every quarter from a 12-month cost forecast and the balance left over from earlier quarters. The reliability factor is reset each July. LADWP’s October 2026 letter says the energy cost factors alone bring in about 42% of the Power System’s retail revenue.

The energy cost factors have not only gone up. They fell from 10.604¢ a kWh in late 2022 to 9.214¢ in April to June 2024, when the balancing account for gas and bought power was in credit, and that credit was handed back on bills. From 2025 that credit shrank and the factors climbed, to 12.769¢ now. Add the July steps in the reliability factor, and Tier 1 has risen 5.00¢ a kWh since January to March 2025, about 22%, with the base rate unchanged.

Every quarterly change since 2023

Each quarter LADWP staff send the Board a letter with the next quarter’s energy cost factors, the reason for the change and its effect on the median home. The Board approves it by resolution, and the City Council does not vote on it. These are LADWP’s own figures from each letter.

1. Oct–Dec 2026Up 7.44%, +$2.65 a month on a 300 kWh bill. LADWP: mainly an increase in Non-Renewable Purchased Power expense and increases in the VEA and VRPSEA balancing accounts. Board letter
2. Jul–Sep 2026Up 5.48%, +$1.85 a month on a 300 kWh bill. LADWP: mainly increases in Non-Renewable Fuel and Purchased Power expenses and an increase in the VEA balancing account. Board letter
3. Apr–Jun 2026Down 3.50%, −$1.23 a month on a 300 kWh bill. LADWP: mainly decreases in Non-Renewable Fuel and Purchased Power expenses and a decrease in the CRPSEA balancing account. Board letter
4. Jan–Mar 2026Up 1.45%, +$0.50 a month on a 300 kWh bill. LADWP: mainly increases in Renewable Purchased Power Agreements, the VRPSEA balancing account, and a decrease in forecasted retail sales (kWh). Board letter
5. Oct–Dec 2025Up 2.66%, +$0.89 a month on a 300 kWh bill. LADWP: mainly increases in the VEA, CRPSEA and VRPSEA balancing accounts and a decrease in forecasted retail sales (kWh). Board letter
6. Jul–Sep 2025Up 2.22%, +$0.73 a month on a 300 kWh bill. LADWP: mainly an increase in Non-Renewable Purchased Power expense, a decrease in the credit balance of the Capped Renewable Portfolio Standard Energy Adjustment (CRPSEA) balancing account, and a decrease in forecasted retail sales (kWh). Board letter
7. Apr–Jun 2025Up 4.47%, +$1.41 a month on a 300 kWh bill. LADWP: mainly an increase in Non-Renewable Purchased Power expense, a decrease in the credit balance of the Variable Energy Adjustment (VEA) balancing account, an increase in the Variable Renewable Portfolio Standard Energy Adjustment (VRPSEA) balancing account, and a decrease in forecasted retail sales (kWh). Board letter
8. Jan–Mar 2025Up 9.24%, +$2.66 a month on a 300 kWh bill. LADWP: mainly an increase in the Base Rate Revenue Target Adjustment and decrease in the credit balance of the Variable Energy Adjustment (VEA) balancing account. Board letter
9. Oct–Dec 2024No letter on LADWP’s site. The energy cost factors were 9.611¢, worked back from the January 2025 letter.
10. Jul–Sep 2024Up 1.71%, +$0.48 a month on a 300 kWh bill. LADWP: mainly increases in expenditures for renewable purchased power agreements and in the balance of the Variable Renewable Portfolio Standard Energy Adjustment (VRPSEA) balancing account. Board letter
11. Apr–Jun 2024Down 4.13%, −$1.19 a month on a 300 kWh bill. LADWP: mainly a decrease in non-renewable fuel expense and the credit balance of the Variable Energy Adjustment (VEA) balancing account. Board letter
12. Jan–Mar 2024Down 5.89%, −$1.81 a month on a 300 kWh bill. LADWP: mainly a decrease in the Base Rate Revenue Target Adjustment resulting from higher estimated kWh sales and a lower under-collection than the prior year. Board letter
13. Oct–Dec 2023Down 1.33%, −$0.41 a month on a 300 kWh bill. LADWP: mainly decrease in the Variable Energy Adjustment (VEA) balancing account and delay of Eland Solar and Storage Center, Phase 2 (200 MW solar capacity). Board letter
14. Jul–Sep 2023Down 0.17%, −$0.06 a month on a 300 kWh bill. LADWP: mainly an increase in the Variable Energy Adjustment (VEA) balancing account offset by a lower Variable Renewable Portfolio Standard Energy Adjustment (VRPSEA) balancing account. Board letter
15. Apr–Jun 2023Up 0.97%, +$0.30 a month on a 300 kWh bill. LADWP: mainly an increase in the Variable Energy Adjustment (VEA) balancing account and a lower Variable Renewable Portfolio Standard Energy Adjustment (VRPSEA) balancing account. Board letter
16. Jan–Mar 2023Down 3.16%, −$1.00 a month on a 300 kWh bill. LADWP: mainly decrease in the Variable Energy Adjustment (VEA) balancing account and lower forecasted fuel and purchased power expenses. Board letter

Each line is LADWP’s own estimate in the Board letter that approved that quarter’s Energy Cost Adjustment expenditures, for its median home of 300 kWh a month, and covers only the four energy cost factors. The July steps in the reliability factor come on top: +$3.89 a month in July 2025 and +$4.29 in July 2026 at 300 kWh, from LADWP’s 2025 and 2026 Power System Reliability Program letters. Percentages are against the quarter before.

Tiers, zones and the Power Access Charge

R-1A has three tiers. LADWP split the city into two temperature zones on the California Energy Commission’s advice: homes in the hotter parts of the city, Zone 2, get more kWh in Tier 1 than homes in the cooler parts, Zone 1. Every LADWP ZIP code that starts with 91, the San Fernando Valley among them, is in Zone 2. From June to September each tier has its own price, and Tier 3 costs 40.97¢ a kWh at last summer’s prices. From October to May, Tiers 2 and 3 cost the same.

The Power Access Charge is a fixed monthly charge of $2.30, $7.90 or $22.70. It is not set by this bill. Each 1 October LADWP looks at your highest month in the past year and puts you in the tier that month reached, for the next 12 months. LADWP’s own example: a Zone 1 home whose biggest month was 600 kWh pays the Tier 2 charge all year. One hot August can therefore raise the charge on every bill until the following October. If a bill is very small, the $10 minimum charge applies instead of the energy charge and the Power Access Charge, plus the adjustment factors.

Rebuilt from the 1 July 2019 base rates and each quarter’s factors; every cell equals the Total Consumption Charge on LADWP’s residential rates page. June takes summer base rates but the April-to-June factors. Tiers from LADWP’s rate explainer.

Two-month bills and summer

Many LADWP homes are billed every two months, and LADWP doubles the tiers on those bills: Zone 1 gets 700 kWh at Tier 1 and the next 1,400 at Tier 2. A bill that crosses 1 June or 1 October is split by billing days. LADWP gives the example of 100 kWh used from 16 September to 15 October: 50 kWh are priced as summer and 50 as winter, and the tier sizes are split the same way. A bill that crosses a quarter, such as one running from mid-September to mid-November, is split by days between the two quarters’ factors too.

This is why the summer bill is the one that surprises. A two-month bill in July and August arrives once, carries summer prices on every kWh, and is the only time Tier 3 costs more than Tier 2. If it is the biggest bill of the year, it also sets the Power Access Charge for the next 12 months on 1 October. The Board’s October 2026 resolution said the median home’s use in the latest two-month billing periods was 15 to 20% higher than in the same summer months of 2025.

R-1B, the time-of-use rate

LADWP’s peak is earlier in the day than the 4-to-9 p.m. peak at SCE, PG&E and SDG&E: high peak runs from 1 to 5 p.m. on weekdays. Low peak is the three hours either side of it on weekdays, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 5 to 8 in the evening. Every other hour, and the whole weekend, is base. In summer a high-peak kWh costs 35.12¢ and a base kWh 26.54¢. From October to May the two peak periods cost the same, 30.17¢ now, against 27.81¢ at base. R-1B has no tiers and no Power Access Charge, but adds a $12 service charge each month.

LADWP suggests R-1B to homes whose two-month bills regularly reach Tier 3, and to solar homes that keep building up credits. Any home that uses 3,000 kWh a month or more on average over a year is moved onto it. A home that switches back to R-1A cannot return to R-1B for 12 months. The calculator at the top of the page prices your use on both; set the peak shares to match your home.

Hours from LADWP’s rate explainer and the rate ordinance; prices are the 1 July 2019 R-1B base rates plus each quarter’s factors, and match LADWP’s posted R-1B totals. From October to May high peak and low peak cost the same. R-1B adds a $12 monthly service charge and has no Power Access Charge or tiers.

The October 2026 Board resolution

After a summer of heat waves and complaints about bills, the Board of Water and Power Commissioners passed a resolution on 27 October 2026. It suspended disconnections of residential water and power for non-payment through the end of 2026, except where safety requires one, according to NBC Los Angeles and the American Public Power Association. It told staff to review the electric rate ordinance and recommend changes to its “rate factors, levels, tiers and seasonality”, and to promote Level Pay, rebates and the bill-help programs. On 26 October Mayor Karen Bass had asked for an independent audit of LADWP’s rates. NBC Los Angeles reported that the Board did not vote on an audit.

Nothing in the resolution changes a price yet. Any new rate ordinance would have to be adopted by the Board and approved by the City Council. City News Service reported that the resolution says changes must address Proposition 26, the state rule on what local charges count as taxes, and may need City Charter amendments. We will update this page when a new ordinance is proposed.

Taxes on the bill

Homes in the City of Los Angeles pay the City Electricity Users Tax: 10% of the electric charges, according to the Office of Finance. Homes in the parts of LADWP’s territory outside the city, such as the Owens Valley, do not. Every bill also carries California’s energy surcharge of $0.0003 a kWh in 2026, set by the California Energy Commission and collected for the state. Senior and disabled customers who qualify can be exempt from the City tax; that exemption is also the gate to LADWP’s Lifeline rate.

Help with bills

LADWP’s EZ-Save and Lifeline programs take a fixed amount off each bill. Electric Lifeline, for qualifying senior and disabled customers, takes off up to $35.42 every two months, with a minimum bill of $4. Electric EZ-Save, for low-income households, takes off up to $16.34 every two months. Level Pay spreads a year’s cost evenly across bills; it does not lower the total but takes the edge off the summer bill. The Electric Subsidy Adjustment of 0.147¢ a kWh on every bill pays for the Lifeline and low-income credits.

What LADWP homes paid since 1990

EIA’s price is LADWP’s residential revenue over its residential kWh sales, so it blends tiers, seasons, the Power Access Charge and every factor, before taxes. LADWP homes paid 8.9¢ a kWh on this measure in 1990. Through 1996 to 2007 the figure sat in a narrow band, 9.7¢ to 10.6¢. It then climbed steadily, to 13.0¢ in 2012 and 20.0¢ in 2019, the year the last base rate step took effect, and 23.8¢ in 2024. 2025 brought the biggest one-year rise in the series: 26.5¢, up 11%, as the energy cost factors climbed and the reliability factor took its July step. Over the latest 12 months, to August 2026, it reached 27.9¢: up 214.0% since 1990, while consumer prices as a whole went up 153.6%.

EIA’s average is higher than the Tier 1 price because many homes pay some Tier 2 and Tier 3 and the Power Access Charge, and because the average home uses more than the median. LADWP’s letters use a median home of 300 kWh a month; EIA’s figures give an average of about 470 kWh in 2025.

LADWP beside SCE and the other California utilities

LADWP homes pay less a kWh than SCE’s, PG&E’s or SDG&E’s, but more than most of the country: among the 40 largest US utilities it is the 6th most expensive by EIA’s home price, against 18.0¢ for the US over the same months. California as a whole paid 32.3¢. Southern California Edison serves most of the neighboring cities. See SCE’s rates, PG&E’s and SDG&E’s for the investor-owned side, and our state-by-state bill comparison for whole monthly bills.

EIA-861, 2025, homes buying their power from the utility itself. A year’s average, so the figure for this utility can differ a little from the 12 months above.

Outages

In 2025 the average LADWP customer was without electricity for 408 minutes altogether; with the largest events, such as storms and heat waves, set aside, 89 minutes. Of the years LADWP has reported to EIA, starting in 2013, the most was 408 minutes in 2025. Bringing them down is what the reliability factor on every bill is meant to pay for.

Rooftop solar

By the close of 2025, 95,898 LADWP households had rooftop solar on net metering, 6.8% of all its homes, with 603 MW of panels. LADWP still credits exported power at the same rate schedule’s energy price under its net metering rider, unlike the investor-owned utilities, which moved new solar homes to the state’s net billing tariff in 2023.

EIA-861 Net Metering: homes with solar panels on a net-metering arrangement at the end of each year.

Where LADWP serves

LADWP serves the City of Los Angeles and customers in the Owens Valley, east of the Sierra Nevada, where much of the city’s water comes from. EIA counted 1.4 million LADWP homes in 2025.

EIA-861 Service Territory, 2025. A county on the list may be served only in part, and other utilities may serve the same county.

Method and checks

A script builds every price on this page from LADWP’s own documents and stops if a check fails. It reads the base rates from LADWP’s rate summary effective 1 July 2019 and checks that its capped and incremental parts add up. It reads the seven factors for each quarter of 2025 and 2026 from LADWP’s factor page. Then it checks that base plus factors equals every Total Consumption Charge on LADWP’s rates page: 60 prices across both rates, to the hundred-thousandth of a dollar. It reads 15 Board letters from January 2023 to October 2026 and checks each one: that its factors add up to its composite, that the change matches the change it prints, and that its 300 kWh effect is 300 times that change. Three letters print with a broken font, so their numbers were read by optical character recognition and then held to the same arithmetic. It checks that the zone ZIP lists in the ordinance and in LADWP’s zone table agree. Bills worked out on our server and by the calculator in your browser come from the same formula: across 3,000 random test bills, R-1A and R-1B, one and two months, the two never differed by a cent.

Not covered here: billing-day splits across seasons and quarters (the calculator prices a bill in one quarter), Lifeline and EZ-Save credits, solar and net metering, the A-1 rate for large homes with their own transformer, and water and sewer charges, which arrive on the same bill. LADWP’s site has no factor letter for October 2024 and no IRCA figure before July 2024; the page says so wherever it matters.

Common questions

Data downloads

• LADWP, every month (CSV)
• All 40 utilities, latest figures (CSV)
• Citable archive on Zenodo (DOI 10.5281/zenodo.24071582): all 40 utilities, with field descriptions
• Dataset, code and history on GitHub

Citing this page

@dataset{say2026ladwpelectricity,
  author    = {Say, Jeremiah},
  title     = {LADWP electricity rates: monthly residential price since 1990},
  year      = {2026},
  publisher = {GreenCalculus},
  doi       = {10.5281/zenodo.24071582},
  url       = {https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.24071582}
}

Version history

• 1.0, 12 November 2026: published, priced on LADWP’s October-to-December 2026 factors.