The Straight Answer: No, You Can't Choose Your Provider
No — you cannot choose your electricity provider in North Carolina. This is a regulated electricity market: one utility holds the exclusive right to serve your address, and the North Carolina Utilities Commission (NCUC) approves what it can charge. Most of the state is served by Duke Energy Progress or Duke Energy Carolinas, with electric cooperatives and municipal utilities covering other territories. Whichever one covers your address, there's no second option next door and no supplier list to shop.
If that sounds like a gap compared to a state where you can pick a supplier, it isn't one in practice — deregulated markets swap "no choice" for "confusing choice," full of teaser rates and contract fine print. See our electrical guide for how wiring and system issues play out state to state. In a regulated state like North Carolina, the honest homeowner question isn't "which supplier is cheapest" — it's "what actually lowers my usage and my bill." That's the rest of this page.
What Power Costs in North Carolina
North Carolina households paid an average of 14¢ per kilowatt-hour in 2025, per preliminary US Energy Information Administration data. The chart below shows the historical trend behind that number.
Full North Carolina electricity price data (1990–2025)
| Year | North Carolina (¢/kWh) | US avg (¢/kWh) |
|---|---|---|
| 1990 | 7.8 | 7.8 |
| 1991 | 8.0 | 8.0 |
| 1992 | 8.1 | 8.2 |
| 1993 | 8.2 | 8.3 |
| 1994 | 8.2 | 8.4 |
| 1995 | 8.1 | 8.4 |
| 1996 | 8.1 | 8.4 |
| 1997 | 8.0 | 8.4 |
| 1998 | 8.0 | 8.3 |
| 1999 | 8.0 | 8.2 |
| 2000 | 8.0 | 8.2 |
| 2001 | 8.1 | 8.6 |
| 2002 | 8.2 | 8.4 |
| 2003 | 8.3 | 8.7 |
| 2004 | 8.5 | 9.0 |
| 2005 | 8.7 | 9.5 |
| 2006 | 9.1 | 10.4 |
| 2007 | 9.4 | 10.7 |
| 2008 | 9.5 | 11.3 |
| 2009 | 10.0 | 11.5 |
| 2010 | 10.1 | 11.5 |
| 2011 | 10.3 | 11.7 |
| 2012 | 10.9 | 11.9 |
| 2013 | 11.0 | 12.1 |
| 2014 | 11.1 | 12.5 |
| 2015 | 11.3 | 12.7 |
| 2016 | 11.0 | 12.6 |
| 2017 | 10.9 | 12.9 |
| 2018 | 11.1 | 12.9 |
| 2019 | 11.4 | 13.0 |
| 2020 | 11.4 | 13.2 |
| 2021 | 11.3 | 13.7 |
| 2022 | 11.6 | 15.0 |
| 2023 | 12.9 | 16.0 |
| 2024 | 14.1 | 16.5 |
| 2025 * | 14.0 | 17.3 |
Source: US EIA, average residential retail electricity price. Values in cents per kWh. * 2025 is preliminary.
That 14¢ rate is up 62 percent since 2005, and over the last decade the climb has held to roughly 2.2 percent a year. That's not a spike — it's a steady, compounding grind, the kind that turns a manageable bill into a much bigger one over ten or fifteen years if nothing on the usage side changes. The practical takeaway is to treat electricity like a cost that reliably gets a little more expensive every year, and to weight decisions — insulation, appliance replacement, solar — using that trajectory, not just this month's bill.
Why Your Rate Is Set This Way
North Carolina's utilities are regulated monopolies: in exchange for the exclusive right to serve a territory, they submit to NCUC oversight of what they can charge. Rates are set through a rate case, not a market — the utility files its costs and the NCUC approves (or trims) what gets passed to customers, usually after a public comment period where residential and commercial customer groups can weigh in. That process is slower than a competitive market, but it's also the reason a North Carolina bill doesn't move on a supplier's marketing budget or a teaser-rate expiration the way a bill in a deregulated state can.
A few cost drivers show up in North Carolina rate cases more than most: the fuel mix (a mix of nuclear, natural gas, and a fast-growing share of solar generation), grid modernization and resilience spending, and storm hardening — line and vegetation work tied to the hurricanes and severe weather that regularly move through the state. None of that is something a homeowner can negotiate around; it's baked into the approved rate everyone in a territory pays, whether you use a little power or a lot.
How to Actually Lower the Bill
With no supplier to shop, every dollar of savings in North Carolina comes from usage or from generating your own power. That's actually a simpler set of choices than a deregulated state hands you — no offers to compare, no contract terms to track, no renewal date to calendar. In order of effort:
- Efficiency first. Attic and duct insulation, air sealing, and an HVAC tune-up or upgrade address the single biggest usage swing in most North Carolina homes — cooling through hot, humid summers and heating through cool winters, especially in the mountains and Piedmont. See our HVAC guide for what a tune-up should cover.
- Ask about time-of-use rates. Some North Carolina utilities offer optional time-of-use pricing that charges less for power used off-peak. It's opt-in — you have to call and ask to be moved onto it — and it only pays off if you can shift some usage (laundry, EV charging, dishwashing) to off-peak hours.
- Ask about budget billing. Most utilities offer a levelized billing plan that averages your annual usage into a flat monthly payment, so a summer cooling spike doesn't hit as a shock. It doesn't lower the total you pay for the year, but it smooths the cash-flow problem that catches a lot of households off guard.
- Weigh rooftop solar against the 14¢ baseline. Solar economics are a direct function of your utility's rate — the higher the rate you're offsetting, the faster the payback. North Carolina gets solid sun exposure across most of the state, which is genuinely favorable for panel output. Whether it pencils out for your specific roof depends on your usage, your utility's net-metering terms, and the quote itself — run the numbers in our solar panels guide before signing anything.
Practical Checklist
- Confirm your utility — Duke Energy Progress, Duke Energy Carolinas, a municipal utility, or an electric cooperative — from your bill, not a search result.
- Call and ask about time-of-use and budget billing. Neither is automatic; both require you to opt in.
- Schedule an HVAC tune-up before the next cooling or heating season, and check attic insulation depth.
- Get a solar quote only if your roof has strong, unobstructed sun exposure, and run the payback math against your actual usage and the 14¢ rate — not a salesperson's estimate.
- Ignore any unsolicited "switch providers" pitch. North Carolina is regulated; there is nothing to switch.
Sources
Figures on this page are 2026-current and come from primary sources. Average residential rate (14¢ per kWh, 2025 preliminary), the 62 percent increase since 2005, and the roughly 2.2 percent annual pace over the last decade, along with the historical series in the chart: US EIA, Electric Power Monthly. Market structure and rate-setting process: North Carolina Utilities Commission. We review these figures every six months.