Virginia doesn't have a residential electricity marketplace to shop, and that's not a gap in the system — it's the system, with one narrow carve-out that doesn't apply to most homeowners. One utility serves your address, the Virginia State 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 (with one narrow exception)
Virginia 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 — Dominion Energy across most of the state, Appalachian Power in the southwest, or a local electric cooperative elsewhere — holds the exclusive right to serve your area, and the Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC) reviews and approves the rates it can charge. That's the entire arrangement for the overwhelming majority of households: one utility, one SCC-approved rate, no shopping.
The one real exception is narrow and doesn't apply to ordinary homes: Virginia law allows very large commercial and industrial customers, and separately customers seeking specifically 100%-renewable electricity supply, to shop for an alternative supplier under defined conditions. Neither carve-out is built for or realistically available to a typical residential household. If you get a call, email, or door-knock offering to "switch your electricity provider" in Virginia as a homeowner, it's not a real option — treat it as a scam. This isn't Texas or Ohio, where deregulation created an actual residential market to navigate. In Virginia 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 Virginia
Virginia residential electricity averaged 15.3 cents per kWh in 2025 (EIA preliminary). The chart below shows the full federal price history for Virginia since 1990, with a dashed projection of where prices go if the last decade's pace simply continues.
Full Virginia electricity price data (1990–2025)
| Year | Virginia (¢/kWh) | US avg (¢/kWh) |
|---|---|---|
| 1990 | 7.3 | 7.8 |
| 1991 | 7.3 | 8.0 |
| 1992 | 7.6 | 8.2 |
| 1993 | 7.6 | 8.3 |
| 1994 | 7.8 | 8.4 |
| 1995 | 7.8 | 8.4 |
| 1996 | 7.6 | 8.4 |
| 1997 | 7.8 | 8.4 |
| 1998 | 7.5 | 8.3 |
| 1999 | 7.5 | 8.2 |
| 2000 | 7.5 | 8.2 |
| 2001 | 7.8 | 8.6 |
| 2002 | 7.8 | 8.4 |
| 2003 | 7.8 | 8.7 |
| 2004 | 8.0 | 9.0 |
| 2005 | 8.2 | 9.5 |
| 2006 | 8.5 | 10.4 |
| 2007 | 8.7 | 10.7 |
| 2008 | 9.6 | 11.3 |
| 2009 | 10.6 | 11.5 |
| 2010 | 10.5 | 11.5 |
| 2011 | 10.6 | 11.7 |
| 2012 | 11.1 | 11.9 |
| 2013 | 10.8 | 12.1 |
| 2014 | 11.1 | 12.5 |
| 2015 | 11.4 | 12.7 |
| 2016 | 11.4 | 12.6 |
| 2017 | 11.6 | 12.9 |
| 2018 | 11.7 | 12.9 |
| 2019 | 12.1 | 13.0 |
| 2020 | 12.0 | 13.2 |
| 2021 | 12.0 | 13.7 |
| 2022 | 13.3 | 15.0 |
| 2023 | 14.3 | 16.0 |
| 2024 | 14.4 | 16.5 |
| 2025 * | 15.3 | 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 87 percent since 2005 — a substantial cumulative climb that has pushed Virginia's rate above where it once sat relative to neighboring regulated states. Second, the last decade's pace has run roughly 3 percent a year, a brisker recent climb than many other regulated states show over the same stretch. Put together, the honest read is a state that saw meaningful repricing in the 2000s and 2010s and hasn't really slowed down since — data-center growth, grid investment, and fuel costs have kept the pressure on rather than letting it ease.
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 Virginia State Corporation Commission, laying out its costs, and the commission decides what's a fair rate of return. Three things drive that number over time: the fuel mix used to generate power (Virginia relies on a mix of natural gas, nuclear, and a fast-growing share of solar, with fuel costs passed through to ratepayers), ongoing grid maintenance and infrastructure investment (poles, wires, substations, and capacity added to serve the state's large and growing data-center load), and periodic rate cases where the utility asks to recover rising costs and the commission 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 commission rules, which happens on a multi-year cycle. The tradeoff for giving up choice is that stability: your rate is boring by design, even when the underlying trend is still climbing.
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 Virginia's mix of humid summers and cold snaps in winter means heating and cooling dominate most residential usage — especially in homes with older, less-efficient equipment. A programmable or smart thermostat and swapping remaining bulbs to LED are lower-effort versions of the same idea. For the house-side fundamentals behind panel capacity and wiring, see our electrical guide.
Ask about time-of-use and budget billing. Dominion Energy and other Virginia utilities offer time-of-use rate schedules that charge less for power used outside peak summer 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 or a January heating 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 15.3 cents per kWh, Virginia sits meaningfully above many other regulated states, which shortens the payback period compared with a low-rate state like Idaho. Combined with a roughly 3-percent annual climb over the last decade, a south-facing roof with strong sun exposure and high usage has a reasonable case to pencil out over a manageable number of years — though it deserves real numbers, not a national average. Run the math against your actual bill and your utility's net-metering 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 Dominion Energy, Appalachian Power, or a local cooperative — 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, especially heading into humid summers and cold snaps.
- Check for efficiency rebates. Many Virginia 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 15.3-cent baseline and usage — Virginia's above-average rate and rising trend make the math more favorable than in many regulated states.
- Ignore any "switch your provider" pitch. Unless you run a very large commercial or industrial operation or qualify for a 100%-renewable carve-out, there is nothing residential to switch to in Virginia.
Sources
- U.S. Energy Information Administration — Virginia average residential rate (15.3 cents/kWh, 2025 preliminary), the 87 percent increase since 2005, and the 1990–2025 historical price series in the chart.