In the heat of July, Arizona power still costs less than the nation's

Electricity in Arizona costs more than it did in the summer of 2020. Across the rest of the country, it went up faster.

The average price Arizona households paid for a kilowatt-hour in July rose 22% from 2020 to 2025, according to monthly residential electricity price data. The U.S. average rose 32.1% over the same stretch.

In cents, Arizona's July price went from 12.6 cents per kWh in 2020 to 15.3 cents per kWh in 2025, an increase of 2.8 cents per kWh.

The national average climbed faster, from 13.2 cents per kWh to 17.5 cents per kWh, up 4.2 cents per kWh.

That makes this a different kind of heat story. Each kilowatt-hour an Arizona home uses in July costs more than it did, right in the stretch of the year when Valley air conditioners work hardest. But Arizona started out a little cheaper than the national average, and the slower climb has widened that lead.

In July 2020, the U.S. average ran 0.6 cents per kWh above Arizona's price. By July 2025, the gap had grown to 2.1 cents per kWh, an increase of 1.5 cents per kWh.

The newest reading points the same way. In July 2026, Arizona's residential price came in at 15.4 cents per kWh, against a national average of 18.3 cents per kWh. Those figures are preliminary and may be revised.

July lands in the middle of the pack

The gap between the national and Arizona prices moves around through the year. Averaged by calendar month from 2020 through 2025, it reached 2 cents per kWh in the month with the widest gap and shrank to 1.2 cents per kWh in the month with the narrowest.

July sits in the middle. Its average gap of 1.6 cents per kWh ranks sixth among the calendar months. August does better for Arizona, with an average gap of 1.9 cents per kWh, close to the top of the range.

July and August are the heart of the Valley's cooling season. In July, at least, Arizona's price advantage over the rest of the country is about average for the year, not at its best.

A rate request still in the pipeline

The comparison so far covers prices households already paid. A request for higher rates is working its way through regulators.

The utility APS has asked for approval of rates, charges and schedules that would increase its annual revenue from base rates (aps.com). It also proposed making annual rate adjustments based on an analysis of the prior year's cost and revenue data (aps.com).

Other pieces of the request reach beyond the household meter. APS proposed that large, high-load-factor customers contribute directly to the costs caused by significant and concentrated growth in system load (aps.com). It also asked to defer for later recovery ongoing costs related to the Cholla Power Plant, including decommissioning (aps.com).

The commission hearing the case set a hearing to begin May 18, 2026 (aps.com). That is well after the July 2025 reading, so the 2020-to-2025 comparison here doesn't include any new rates that come out of it.

About the data

We compared Arizona's average monthly residential electricity price with the U.S. average, using state-level monthly price figures from January 2020 through July 2026. We measured the change from July 2020 to July 2025 in cents per kilowatt-hour and in percent, and we averaged the national-minus-Arizona price gap for each calendar month from 2020 through 2025 to see which months show the widest difference.

• The July 2026 figures are preliminary and may be revised.
• The price per kilowatt-hour is a statewide average and does not show what any one household's bill was, since bills also depend on how much power a home uses.
• The figures cover prices already charged and do not include any rates that may result from the pending APS rate case.

Kilowatt-hour (kWh): the unit utilities use to measure and bill for the electricity a home uses. Residential price: the average amount household customers pay for each kilowatt-hour of electricity. Base rates: the core charges a utility sets through a formal rate case before state regulators.

Sources

• U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA): EIA electricity/retail-sales (monthly): price for stateid=AZ, sectorid=RES, latest period July 2026; retrieved Oct. 19, 2026. Data
• U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA): EIA electricity/retail-sales (monthly): price for stateid=US, sectorid=RES, latest period July 2026; retrieved Oct. 12, 2026. Data