NorthWestern Energy (SD) Electricity Rate per kWh (2024 EIA Data)
Investor Owned|EIA utility 13809|South Dakota|Bundled
In 2024, NorthWestern Energy (SD)'s residential customers paid an average of 12.56 cents per kWh: $70 million of revenue over 557,457 MWh of sales across 51,467 bundled residential customers, as reported to EIA on Form 861.
How the 12.56c figure is calculated
12.56c/kWh = $70,012k revenue / 557,457 MWh x 100. This is EIA's average realised price for 2024: everything NorthWestern Energy (SD) billed its residential customers (energy, delivery, fuel and rider charges, fixed charges) divided by the kilowatt-hours it sold. It is not a tariff rate, and a 2024 annual average will differ from a current bill. For a 1,000 kWh month at this average, the energy cost works out to about $126 before taxes.
About NorthWestern Energy (SD)'s 2024 electricity prices
NorthWestern Energy (SD) is an investor-owned electric utility that reports to the U.S. Energy Information Administration under utility number 13809. In 2024 it served 51,467 bundled residential customers in South Dakota, and its average realised residential price was 12.56 cents per kWh: $70 million of residential revenue divided by 557,457 MWh of residential sales.
Across the other sectors, NorthWestern Energy (SD)'s 2024 average prices were 12.01 cents for commercial customers (13,444 accounts) and 7.92 cents for industrial customers (60 accounts). Industrial customers paid 4.64 cents less per kWh than households, a 37% discount that is typical of high-volume, high-voltage service.
Within South Dakota, NorthWestern Energy (SD) ranked number 3 of 21 utilities with bundled or delivery service by residential accounts served (51,467) and accounted for 10.78% of the state's residential electricity sales in 2024, measured in MWh sold or delivered rather than in customers. The state-wide average realised residential price in 2024, computed from the same EIA file, was 12.86 cents per kWh, so NorthWestern Energy (SD)'s customers paid 0.30 cents below the South Dakota average (-2.3%). For context, EIA's latest monthly figure for South Dakota is 15.36 cents per kWh (June 2026, Electric Power Monthly); that is a different, more recent measure across all utilities and is not directly comparable with a 2024 annual average.
EIA's service-territory file places NorthWestern Energy (SD) in 27 South Dakota counties: Aurora, Beadle, Bon Homme, Brown, Brule, Charles Mix, Clark, Codington, Davison, Day, Deuel, and Douglas, and 15 more. On the grid side it operates in the MRO NERC region and the Southwest Power Pool market, and reported generation, transmission, buying transmission, distribution, wholesale marketing, and bundled as its activities. Balancing authority code: SWPP.
EIA's preliminary 2025 early release (published 4 August 2026) shows a residential price of 13.35 cents per kWh for NorthWestern Energy (SD) in South Dakota across 51,787 residential customers, 0.79 cents higher than the 2024 final figure. Early-release data has not been validated by EIA and must not be aggregated; the 2024 final figures remain the reference on this page until the 2025 final file is published.
The nearest other utilities in South Dakota by service-territory centroid are Dakota Energy Coop Inc (26.6 miles away, 15.30 cents), Central Electric Coop, Inc (SD) (30.7 miles away, 13.64 cents), City of Madison (SD) (55 miles away, 11.49 cents), Watertown Municipal Utilities (67.1 miles away, 9.30 cents), and City of Brookings (SD) (68.3 miles away, 11.12 cents).
| Sector | Customers | Sales (MWh) | Revenue ($k) | Avg c/kWh |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Residential | 51,467 | 557,457 | 70,012 | 12.56 |
| Commercial | 13,444 | 668,834 | 80,339 | 12.01 |
| Industrial | 60 | 438,660 | 34,748 | 7.92 |
Counties served in South Dakota (27)
From the EIA-861 Service Territory file; a listed county can be served in part only.
2025 early release (preliminary, not validated by EIA)
Residential price in South Dakota: 13.35c/kWh (+0.79c vs 2024 final), 51,787 residential customers; commercial 13.02c; industrial 8.85c. Published 4 August 2026. EIA marks this file "not fully edited, use with caution"; the 2024 final figures above remain the reference.
Nearby and comparable utilities in South Dakota
- EIA utility number
- 13809
- Ownership type
- Investor Owned
- Data year
- 2024 final (EIA-861)
- Primary state
- South Dakota
- Service type
- Bundled (Part A)
- Bundled residential customers (SD, price basis)
- 51,467
- Residential accounts served (SD)
- 51,467
- All accounts, all sectors (SD)
- 64,971
- Residential price, 2024
- 12.56 c/kWh
- Commercial price, 2024
- 12.01 c/kWh
- Industrial price, 2024
- 7.92 c/kWh
- Residential sales
- 557,457 MWh
- Residential revenue
- $70 million
- Rank in South Dakota by residential accounts served
- 3 of 21
- Share of South Dakota residential sales (MWh, not customers)
- 10.78%
- South Dakota average, 2024
- 12.86 c/kWh
- Counties served (SD)
- 27
- NERC region
- MRO
- RTO / ISO
- Southwest Power Pool
- Balancing authority
- SWPP
- Reported activities
- Generation, Transmission, Buying Transmission, Distribution, Wholesale Marketing, Bundled
- 2025 early release (preliminary)
- 13.35 c/kWh
- Change vs 2024 final
- +0.79 c/kWh
- Registry status
- Reported on Form EIA-861 for 2024
Realised price times usage; fixed charges are already inside the average. Bill calculator ->
Annual averages hide seasonal and tariff differences. Diagnose a high bill or model time-of-use pricing.
Bill Diagnostic ->Time-of-Use Guide ->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.
Method: cents per kWh = revenue (thousand dollars) divided by sales (megawatthours), times 100. Customer counts, sales and revenue are the utility's own annual survey responses by state and sector. Bundled = energy plus delivery from one utility; delivery-only = the wires charge for customers who buy energy from a competitive supplier; energy-only = a competitive supplier's energy charge without delivery. County lists come from the EIA-861 Service Territory file; territory centroids used for "nearby utilities" are unweighted means of Census 2023 county centroids. EIA content is in the public domain (EIA copyright and reuse statement); the EIA logo is not used. Corrections: [email protected].