Electricity Rate in Colorado (2026): 17.13c/kWh Average
The EIA residential electricity price in Colorado is 17.13 cents per kWh as of June 2026, 1.21c below the US average of 18.34c/kWh. The Colorado commercial rate is 14.19c/kWh and the industrial rate is 10.23c/kWh (EIA Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.A).
Colorado Electricity Rate: What You Need to Know
Colorado electricity averages 17.13 cents per kWh for residential customers as of June 2026, according to the EIA Electric Power Monthly. This is 1.21c below the US average of 18.34c/kWh. The average monthly bill for Colorado households is $107 based on typical usage of 673 kWh.
Colorado's 17.13c/kWh residential rate (June 2026) sits below the US average of 18.34c, and it has been rising. Xcel Energy (Public Service Company of Colorado) is the dominant regulated utility, serving about 1.6 million electric customers across the Front Range including Denver, Boulder, and the Colorado Springs suburbs; Black Hills Energy, the municipal Colorado Springs Utilities, and a network of rural cooperatives serve the rest. Colorado is a regulated market with no residential retail choice - households buy from the utility assigned to their territory, with rates set by the Colorado Public Utilities Commission. Xcel filed for a $356 million electric rate increase (about 9%) in November 2025, and in June 2026 reached a settlement cutting that to roughly $225 million, lifting the typical residential bill about $6 a month to near $111. The structural driver is Colorado's Clean Energy Plan: Xcel is retiring the coal-fired Comanche units in Pueblo (the state's largest power plant) while building out wind and solar, and those transition costs - plus wildfire mitigation and transmission investment - flow into rates. Wind already supplies roughly 30% of Colorado's electricity.
Generation mix: Natural gas 30%, wind 30%, coal 27%, solar 10%. The fuel mix is a primary driver of electricity rates - states with abundant hydro or nuclear tend to have lower rates, while states dependent on imported petroleum (Hawaii) or natural gas pay more.
Year-over-year change: Colorado rates rose 6.8% year-over-year as of June 2026. This compares to the US average increase of 5% over the same period.
Regulated: You Cannot Switch Electricity Suppliers
Xcel Energy operates as the regulated utility in Colorado. Retail electricity choice is not available for residential customers. Options for reducing your bill include: time-of-use rate optimization, energy efficiency upgrades, and rooftop solar.
Your Colorado Electricity Bill Components
State pre-selected in our full bill calculator with TOU and commercial modes.
Open Bill Calculator ->Electric Utilities in Colorado: 59 Listed (2024 EIA-861)
EIA's Form 861 census records 59 entities with 2024 retail electricity sales in Colorado: 34 distribution utilities filing the full form, 25 small utilities filing the short form (EIA-861S). By ownership: 28 municipal, 28 cooperative, 2 investor owned, 1 federal. The state-wide average realised residential price in 2024 was 14.92 cents per kWh across 2,527,834 residential customers and 20,693,690 MWh of sales; EIA's latest monthly figure is 17.13c (June 2026). The largest utility by residential accounts served (bundled plus delivery-only) is Public Service Co of Colorado with 1,365,053 (15.05c per kWh, 47.5% of state residential sales by MWh). 33 of the 34 distribution utilities have a detail page; the rest are listed here only.
| # | Utility | Ownership | Res. accounts | Residential | Commercial | Counties |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Public Service Co of Colorado | Investor Owned | 1,365,053 | 15.05c | 11.84c | 56 |
| 2 | City of Colorado Springs (CO) | Municipal | 216,771 | 14.45c | 9.56c | 2 |
| 3 | CORE Electric Cooperative | Cooperative | 165,067 | 15.04c | 12.27c | 11 |
| 4 | United Power, Inc | Cooperative | 101,502 | 15.75c | 12.62c | 6 |
| 5 | Black Hills Colorado Electric, LLC | Investor Owned | 89,252 | 17.05c | 12.05c | 7 |
| 6 | City of Fort Collins (CO) | Municipal | 70,803 | 13.21c | 11.50c | 1 |
| 7 | Mountain View Elec Assn, Inc | Cooperative | 59,789 | 15.52c | 13.11c | 8 |
| 8 | Holy Cross Electric Assn, Inc | Cooperative | 49,982 | 12.04c | 10.04c | 5 |
| 9 | Poudre Valley REA, Inc | Cooperative | 49,587 | 12.21c | 11.15c | 3 |
| 10 | City of Longmont | Municipal | 40,855 | 12.30c | 11.04c | 2 |
| 11 | La Plata Electric Assn, Inc | Cooperative | 39,931 | 16.71c | 12.69c | 5 |
| 12 | City of Loveland (CO) | Municipal | 37,007 | 14.40c | 14.22c | 1 |
| 13 | Delta Montrose Electric Assn | Cooperative | 32,575 | 14.97c | 11.64c | 4 |
| 14 | San Isabel Electric Assn, Inc | Cooperative | 23,289 | 17.78c | 16.09c | 7 |
| 15 | Yampa Valley Electric Assn Incalso WY | Cooperative | 23,253 | 16.76c | 13.17c | 5 |
| 16 | Mountain Parks Electric, Inc | Cooperative | 19,183 | 15.98c | 12.30c | 5 |
| 17 | Grand Valley Power | Cooperative | 17,268 | 15.94c | 13.85c | 3 |
| 18 | City of Fountain | Municipal | 17,242 | 13.74c | 11.72c | 1 |
| 19 | Empire Electric Assn, Incalso UT | Cooperative | 12,899 | 15.31c | 10.83c | 3 |
| 20 | San Miguel Power Assn, Inc | Cooperative | 12,154 | 16.32c | 13.43c | 6 |
| 21 | San Luis Valley R E C, Inc | Cooperative | 9,115 | 18.38c | 13.69c | 7 |
| 22 | Southeast Colorado Power Assn | Cooperative | 8,148 | 17.22c | 12.98c | 11 |
| 23 | City of Fort Morgan | Municipal | 5,999 | 6.97c | 9.57c | 1 |
| 24 | Morgan County Rural Elec Assn | Cooperative | 5,825 | 14.37c | 9.86c | 6 |
| 25 | Highline Electric Assnalso NE | Cooperative | 5,047 | 14.12c | 13.35c | 7 |
| 26 | Y-W Electric Assn Incalso NE | Cooperative | 4,876 | 15.64c | 10.20c | 2 |
| 27 | K C Electric Association | Cooperative | 3,404 | 13.09c | 12.51c | 4 |
| 28 | White River Electric Assn, Inc | Cooperative | 2,633 | 13.78c | 11.97c | 3 |
| 29 | Moon Lake Electric Assn Incalso UT | Cooperative | 1,526 | 9.35c | 8.97c | 3 |
| 30 | High West Energy, Incalso WY, NE | Cooperative | 670 | 15.15c | 11.21c | 3 |
| 31 | Wheatland Electric Coop, Incalso KS | Cooperative | 31 | 18.37c | 17.19c | 3 |
| 32 | Tri-County Electric Coop, Inc (OK)also OK, KS, TX, NM | Cooperative | 9 | 16.03c | 18.78c | 1 |
| 33 | Southwestern Electric Coop Inc (NM)also NM, TX, OK | Cooperative | 5 | 19.90c | 18.89c | 1 |
| 34 | WAPA-- Western Area Power Administrationalso CA, AZ, KS, MN, MT, ND, NE, NM, NV, SD, UT, WY | Federal | 0 | n/a | 2.95c | 36 |
Small utilities filing the EIA-861S short form (25): totals across all sectors, no residential split+
| Utility | Ownership | Customers (all) | Avg price (all) | Counties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sangre De Cristo Elec Assn Inc | Cooperative | 14,568 | 18.66c | 5 |
| Gunnison County Elec Assn. | Cooperative | 11,738 | 17.36c | 3 |
| Town of Estes Park | Municipal | 11,250 | 15.57c | 2 |
| City of Glenwood Springs (CO) | Municipal | 6,573 | 8.85c | 1 |
| City of Trinidad (CO) | Municipal | 4,680 | 17.46c | 1 |
| City of Gunnison (CO) | Municipal | 4,658 | 11.62c | 1 |
| City of Lamar (CO) | Municipal | 4,096 | 17.43c | 2 |
| City of La Junta (CO) | Municipal | 3,808 | 14.07c | 1 |
| City of Delta (CO) | Municipal | 3,706 | 12.50c | 1 |
| City of Aspen- (CO) | Municipal | 3,126 | 13.86c | 1 |
| City of Las Animas (CO) | Municipal | 2,086 | 18.22c | 1 |
| City of Burlington (CO) | Municipal | 2,039 | 13.11c | 1 |
| City of Yuma (CO) | Municipal | 1,615 | 10.65c | 1 |
| City of Wray | Municipal | 1,325 | 11.72c | 1 |
| City of Holyoke (CO) | Municipal | 1,222 | 13.52c | 1 |
| Town of Lyons (CO) | Municipal | 1,126 | 12.64c | 1 |
| City of Julesburg (CO) | Municipal | 963 | 10.94c | 1 |
| City of Springfield (CO) | Municipal | 944 | 15.72c | 1 |
| City of Center (CO) | Municipal | 903 | 10.24c | 2 |
| Town of Oak Creek (CO) | Municipal | 679 | 10.39c | 1 |
| Town of Haxtun (CO) | Municipal | 607 | 13.37c | 1 |
| Town of Holly (CO) | Municipal | 573 | 14.47c | 1 |
| Town of Granada (CO) | Municipal | 318 | 14.04c | 1 |
| Town of Fleming (CO) | Municipal | 223 | 13.48c | 1 |
| Deseret Generation & Tran Coop | Cooperative | 1 | 12.18c | 1 |
Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Form EIA-861 Annual, 2024 final data (public domain), retrieved 28 August 2026; prices are average realised revenue per kWh, not tariffs. Final 2024 file f8612024.zip (released 3 December 2025) from the EIA-861 detailed data files. Preliminary 2025 figures come from the early-release file f8612025er.zip (4 August 2026), which EIA has not yet validated; they are labelled as such wherever shown and never mixed into a final figure.