From the Power Globe archives..

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A few weeks ago I asked about residential prices for electricity and gas service. Thank you to all those who responded. I have finally found time to collate the responses.My first conclusion is that the price of natural gas is currently so volatile that comparison, based on a single snapshot, is rather meaningless. Comparison is further complicated by the many 'standard' units of measurement. I have therefore not attempted to compare gas prices.Regarding electricity service, there are many variations in tariff structures.

To draw a simple comparison, I have assumed a 30 day month, and a monthly usage of 550kWh. (I believe this is somewhere around average monthly use for a family in the US. Of course such a figure will differ greatly from location to location.)

These figures gave the following comparison:

Location Monthly Total (in US $)
Tokyo, Japan 97.43
Baden, Switzerland 86.58
Oakland, CA 83.37
MGE, Madison, WI 77.66
UK 77.50
Tallahassee, FL 73.30
TXU, TX 71.38
UK (renewable rate) 71.12
Entergy Gulf States Louisiana 69.87
Powergen (London) 68.18
Entergy Louisiana 66.64
Nepal 62.75
Mississippi 62.45
Unitil, Hampton, NH 62.37
Newfoundland, Canada 61.07S
alt River 58.05
Scottsdale, AZ 55.00
Tucson, AZ 55.00
Costa Rica 54.95
Yellowknife (Northwest Territories) 54.92
Croatia 54.84
ntario, Canada 53.06
ComEd, IL 52.64
AmerenIP, Champaign, IL 51.69
Country Energy (Australia) 51.38
Arkansas 50.51
Otsego, Hartwwick, NY 49.25
Public Service of Colorado 49.02
Ames, IA 47.45
Manhattan, KS 45.65
Chennai, India 45.65
Eskom, South Africa 41.50
Unitil, NH 41.49
Alabama Power 40.21
Gainesville, FL 34.04
Sao Paulo, Brazil 33.78
India 30.25

From a personal perspective, it's interesting to see that MGE, our local energy company in Madison, has one of the highest rates in the world. And they have just been granted an 11% increase (not included here).

In drawing conclusions from the above data, please keep in mind this survey is quite unofficial, and in no way rigorous.

Regards,Ian
Professor
Dept of Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Wisconsin - Madison

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p.s: just thought i could put it on the blog cuz i participated in this survey and found it interesting to see India having the least electricity rates, and the city I live in (Chennai) seems to hover in the mid-range!