Rates & fees
- The PUD’s Board of Commissioners recently approved an overall revenue adjustment of 2.5% for electric customers beginning April 1, 2026.
- For PUD residential customers, the rate increase will only be applied to the energy charge. The base charge will remain the same as 2025. The energy charge will increase $0.0035 per kilowatt hour or approximately $3.22 per month for most residential households. Bill increases will vary depending on each household’s usage.
- For PUD small business customers, the rate increase will only impact the energy charge with no change to the base charge. The energy charge will increase $0.0021 per kilowatt hour or approximately $4.55 per month for the average small business.
- PUD water customers will see an average bill increase of $3.33 per month. Water rate increases will take effect Jan. 1, 2026.
Electric rates
Includes rates for residential, business, and street/area lighting services
Learn more >
Electric rates for other services
Rates for net metering, customer-owned electric generation, and public electric vehicle charging
Get the details >
Electric service fees
Fees for specific services, including the account service charge, reconnections, and disconnections
View the list >
Frequently asked questions
What do rates cover?
Rates include the cost of purchasing or producing power (energy charge); the cost of getting that power to your home or business, including not only equipment but labor and facilities (distribution charge), and administrative overhead costs (customer charge).
Most rates in the region include both energy and distribution costs together. One of the major changes in deregulation is the separation of these costs (often referred to as “unbundling” of rates). Some utilities charge a basic monthly customer charge on top of energy-usage/distribution charges.
Rates differ from residential to commercial to large industrial customers largely because of the costs it involves to get power to each customer classification.
Each class has the same amount of energy charge built into its rate structure. But it’s cheaper to deliver power to one large industrial customer than to several small homes because often the large industrial customer has its own substation and takes power at a much higher voltage than residential customers who must have the voltage lowered for them to use in their households.
Delivering power to our growing customer base requires many substations, poles, distribution wires, switching stations, transformers, etc. That’s basically why large industrial customers have lower rates than residential customers.
How do PUD residential rates compare to other regional rates?
This chart compares residential bills from various regional utilities. Based on 1,000 kilowatt-hours (average rates, as of August 29, 2024; includes customer charges where applicable)
| Portland General Electric | $189.79 |
| Puget Sound Energy | $142.59 |
| Seattle City Light | $142.34 |
| Grays Harbor PUD | $130.10 |
| Snohomish PUD* | $127.43 |
| Klickitat PUD | $124.93 |
| Tacoma Power | $108.86 |
| Clark PUD | $106.90 |
| Cowlitz PUD | $91.70 |
Assumptions: 5 kW residential (25% load factor), weighted average of summer/winter rates if applicable. *Assumes Medium-level base charge at rates effective April 1, 2025.
When did the PUD institute a base charge?
The PUD Board of Commissioners approved adding a base charge to residential electric rates (Schedule 7) on Nov. 19, 2019. Originally planned as a four-year rollout, the schedule was revised to two years. After a pandemic delay in 2021, implementation began April 1, 2022, with the final phase effective April 1, 2024. The final phase also included the elimination of the minimum daily charge.
How much is the base charge?
The amount of the monthly base charge is based on building type and main panel amperage. Categories include:
- Small: Multi-family or small services
- Medium: Single-family homes
- Large/Extra Large: High-demand homes
Costs are detailed in the chart below:
| Small ($/day) | Medium | Large | Extra Large | Minimum Bill | All kWh ($/kWh) |
| $0.49 | $0.80 | $1.14 | $1.86 | NA | $0.10263 |
Why did the PUD institute a base charge?
As electricity usage patterns have changed, electric utilities have altered the way they recoup costs associated with building and maintaining the electric grid. In the past few years, the PUD has seen its customer count grow, while the total amount of electricity usage has remained flat. This has put the PUD in the unsustainable situation of serving thousands of additional customers each year without selling any additional electricity to pay for it. Utilities have instituted base charges to ensure all customers pay the appropriate amount for costs associated with metering, billing and connecting to the grid.