Kansas doesn't have an electricity marketplace to shop, and that's not a gap in the system — it's the system. One utility serves your address, the Kansas Corporation Commission approves what it can charge, and the "best plan" question that dominates deregulated states simply doesn't apply here. That sounds limiting, but it also means there's no fine print to decode, no holdover rate waiting to ambush you, and no gimmick plan engineered against your usage. Here's what actually sets your rate, what it costs in 2026, and the concrete moves a homeowner can make when the provider itself isn't one of them.
The straight answer: no, you can't choose
Kansas is a regulated electricity state. There is no residential provider choice, no comparison site, and no competing suppliers bidding for your account. A single utility — Evergy across most of the state, plus rural electric cooperatives and municipal utilities elsewhere — holds the exclusive right to serve your territory, and the Kansas Corporation Commission (KCC) reviews and approves the rates it can charge. That's the entire arrangement: one utility, one PUC-approved rate, no shopping.
If you get a call, email, or door-knock offering to "switch your electricity provider" in Kansas, it's not a real option — treat it as a scam. This isn't Texas or Ohio, where deregulation created an actual market to navigate. In Kansas the honest homeowner question isn't "which provider is cheapest," it's "what can I actually control given the rate I'm stuck with" — and there's more to that answer than it first appears.
What power costs in Kansas
Kansas residential electricity averaged 14.6 cents per kWh in 2025 (EIA preliminary). The chart below shows the full federal price history for Kansas since 1990, with a dashed projection of where prices go if the last decade's pace simply continues.
Full Kansas electricity price data (1990–2025)
| Year | Kansas (¢/kWh) | US avg (¢/kWh) |
|---|---|---|
| 1990 | 7.8 | 7.8 |
| 1991 | 7.8 | 8.0 |
| 1992 | 7.9 | 8.2 |
| 1993 | 7.9 | 8.3 |
| 1994 | 7.9 | 8.4 |
| 1995 | 7.9 | 8.4 |
| 1996 | 7.9 | 8.4 |
| 1997 | 7.7 | 8.4 |
| 1998 | 7.7 | 8.3 |
| 1999 | 7.6 | 8.2 |
| 2000 | 7.7 | 8.2 |
| 2001 | 7.7 | 8.6 |
| 2002 | 7.7 | 8.4 |
| 2003 | 7.7 | 8.7 |
| 2004 | 7.7 | 9.0 |
| 2005 | 7.9 | 9.5 |
| 2006 | 8.3 | 10.4 |
| 2007 | 8.2 | 10.7 |
| 2008 | 8.9 | 11.3 |
| 2009 | 9.5 | 11.5 |
| 2010 | 10.0 | 11.5 |
| 2011 | 10.7 | 11.7 |
| 2012 | 11.2 | 11.9 |
| 2013 | 11.6 | 12.1 |
| 2014 | 12.2 | 12.5 |
| 2015 | 12.3 | 12.7 |
| 2016 | 13.1 | 12.6 |
| 2017 | 13.3 | 12.9 |
| 2018 | 13.4 | 12.9 |
| 2019 | 12.7 | 13.0 |
| 2020 | 12.9 | 13.2 |
| 2021 | 13.0 | 13.7 |
| 2022 | 14.0 | 15.0 |
| 2023 | 13.4 | 16.0 |
| 2024 | 14.2 | 16.5 |
| 2025 * | 14.6 | 17.3 |
Source: US EIA, average residential retail electricity price. Values in cents per kWh. * 2025 is preliminary.
Two things stand out in that trend. First, the rate has risen about 84 percent since 2005 — one of the larger cumulative increases among regulated states, spread across two decades rather than arriving as a sudden shock. Second, the last decade's pace has slowed to roughly 1.7 percent a year, meaningfully calmer than the run-up that preceded it. That combination — a steep climb since 2005 but a gentler recent trajectory — means next year's bill is unlikely to spike, even though "electricity used to be a lot cheaper here" is a documented fact, not a memory playing tricks. If the recent pace holds, the honest planning assumption is continued gradual, compounding increases rather than either a plateau or a return to the faster growth of the 2000s and early 2010s.
Why your rate is set the way it is
In a regulated monopoly, your utility doesn't set its own price and hope you pay it — it files a rate case with the Kansas Corporation Commission, laying out its costs, and the KCC decides what's a fair rate of return. Three things drive that number over time: the fuel mix used to generate power (natural gas, coal, wind — Kansas gets a substantial share of its generation from wind, though that doesn't automatically translate to lower retail rates — and a smaller nuclear share), ongoing grid maintenance and infrastructure investment (poles, wires, substations, and transmission upgrades across a large, rural service territory), and periodic rate cases where the utility asks to recover rising costs and the KCC negotiates the increase down, approves it, or occasionally rejects parts of it.
This is also why your rate doesn't behave like a stock price. There's no daily fluctuation, no surge pricing, and no plan you might have missed — the number moves only when the utility files and the KCC rules, which happens on a multi-year cycle. The tradeoff for giving up choice is that stability: your rate is boring by design, and boring is often underrated.
How to actually lower your bill
Since the rate itself isn't negotiable, the lever that's actually yours is usage — and a few billing options your utility may offer without advertising loudly.
Efficiency first. Attic and duct insulation, sealing air leaks around windows and doors, and an HVAC tune-up (or upgrade, if your system is old) do more for a bill than anything else on this list, because Kansas's mix of hot, humid summers and genuinely cold winters means heating and cooling dominate most residential usage. A programmable or smart thermostat and swapping remaining bulbs to LED are lower-effort versions of the same idea.
Ask about time-of-use and budget billing. Some Kansas utilities offer a time-of-use rate that charges less for power used outside peak afternoon and evening hours — worth asking about if you can shift laundry, dishwashing, or EV charging to off-peak hours. Separately, budget billing (sometimes called levelized or average billing) spreads your annual usage into equal monthly payments, so a July air-conditioning bill doesn't blindside you even though it doesn't change what you pay over a year. Neither is automatic — call your utility and ask what's available on your account.
Rooftop solar, measured honestly. Solar payback math runs directly off your utility's rate, and at 14.6 cents per kWh, Kansas sits closer to the national middle than to the cheapest regulated states, which gives solar more room to pencil out than it would somewhere with rock-bottom power costs. That doesn't make it a given — a south-facing roof with strong sun exposure and high usage improves the math considerably, and it's worth confirming your utility's net-metering terms before assuming full retail credit for exported power — but the baseline rate itself isn't the obstacle it would be in a cheaper state. Run the math against your actual bill and your utility's terms before signing anything; our solar panels guide walks through the full calculation.
The practical checklist
Twenty minutes with your last few utility bills:
- Confirm your utility and territory. Know whether you're served by Evergy, a rural electric cooperative, or a municipal utility — your bill states it, and it determines who to call for programs and outage reporting.
- Ask about time-of-use and budget billing. Call your utility directly; these programs are opt-in and rarely advertised on the bill itself.
- Fix the biggest usage drivers first. Insulation, air sealing, and an HVAC tune-up move the needle more than any thermostat habit.
- Check for efficiency rebates. Many Kansas utilities offer rebates on insulation, smart thermostats, or HVAC upgrades — ask before you pay full price.
- Run solar numbers against your real bill. Skip the national-average pitch; get a quote and calculate payback at your actual 14.6-cent baseline and usage.
- Ignore any "switch your provider" pitch. Kansas is regulated — there is nothing to switch to.
For the house-side fundamentals behind these numbers — panel capacity, wiring, and what actually drives usage — see our electrical guide.
Sources
- U.S. Energy Information Administration — Kansas average residential rate (14.6 cents/kWh, 2025 preliminary), the 84 percent increase since 2005, and the 1990–2025 historical price series in the chart.