Investor-owned utilities asked state regulators for $18.6 billion in rate increases in the first half of 2026, and the second quarter alone set a record. The main driver is a building boom.
Utilities now plan to spend $1.4 trillion through 2030 on transmission lines, gas-fired power plants, grid hardening, and wildfire protection, and rate cases are how that spending reaches customers. Data centers are one part of the story.
PowerLines, a consumer-advocacy nonprofit that tracks utility filings, counted $9.2 billion in new rate requests in the second quarter of 2026. That is 26 percent above the previous second-quarter record, set in 2025, and the filings cover more than 56 million customers. Across the first six months, electric and gas requests total $18.6 billion.
The pace follows a record 2025. PowerLines counted $31 billion in requests for the full year, double the $15 billion sought in 2024. A separate tracker, Regulatory Research Associates, counted $22.06 billion for 2025 and also called it a record. The totals differ by tracker, and both point the same direction.
Where the money goes
Rate requests follow spending. Utilities’ five-year capital plans reached $1.4 trillion through 2030, up from $1.1 trillion a year earlier, according to PowerLines’ analysis as reported by Utility Dive. By region, the largest share is in the Southeast ($572 billion), followed by the Midwest ($272 billion), the West ($225 billion), and the Northeast ($195 billion).
Three forces sit behind the numbers:
- Aging equipment. Replacing poles, wires, and transformers is a recurring driver. Fortune, citing PowerLines, reports utilities invested $1.3 trillion in grid modernization over the past decade.
- Weather damage and prevention. Wildfires in the West and hurricanes in the South have raised both repair bills and hardening budgets. Berkeley Lab names wildfire mitigation as a major cost in California.
- New demand. Data centers are the most visible source of load growth. PowerLines estimates they have added $13.8 billion to consumer bills in the PJM region, which covers parts of Illinois and New Jersey, but its founder has said they are not the biggest reason bills have risen.
A fourth factor works through the math of the bill itself. Utilities recover fixed grid costs across the kilowatt-hours they sell, so when sales volumes fall, the cost per unit rises. Berkeley Lab notes this effect in states with a lot of solar, where retail sales have declined and amplified the per-customer impact of rate increases.
Utilities make a reasonable case of their own: spreading the cost of long-lived infrastructure across decades keeps the annual cost to customers manageable. Whether that holds depends on how much gets built and who ends up paying.
A request is not a bill
Regulators decide what a utility can actually collect. Between 2021 and 2025, state commissions approved about 64 percent of the dollar value of requested increases, according to Berkeley Lab, which means roughly two of every three dollars requested end up in rates in some form.
The effect is already visible. Berkeley Lab found residential electricity prices rose 33 percent from 2019 to 2025, outpacing commercial prices (26 percent) and industrial prices (27 percent) and outrunning inflation. PowerLines estimates the average household paid $110 more in 2025 than in 2024.
Prices rose most in the states that matter to many of our readers. California saw an inflation-adjusted increase of more than 6 cents per kilowatt-hour. New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Maryland, and Rhode Island each saw increases above 2 cents.
What to watch this fall
Three decisions will shape the next round of bills. The first is PJM’s capacity auction in December, which sets the cost of reserve power for the grid that serves much of the Mid-Atlantic and parts of Illinois. PJM canceled a planned backstop auction on September 30 after federal regulators suspended it, so the December auction will run without those results.
The second is Washington. The House passed the Ratepayer Protection Act 417 to 3 on September 16. It would require states to consider standards so that very large power users, such as data centers, cover the incremental grid costs they create. Analysts at ClearView Energy Partners consider Senate passage before the November elections unlikely.
The third is the long list of state rate cases already filed. Each one has a docket, a schedule, and a decision date.
What a rate case is and how to follow yours
A rate case is a formal filing in which a utility asks its state commission to raise the revenue it collects from customers. Commission staff, consumer advocates, and other parties review the request, and the commission issues a ruling, often months later.
Delivery charges, the poles-and-wires part of your bill, are typically set this way. Supply charges more often follow wholesale market prices and pass through to customers. Knowing which part of your bill is moving tells you where to look.
Most state commissions post rate case filings and schedules online. A search for your state’s public utility commission and “rate case” usually leads to the docket. Three things are worth reading first:
- The total revenue increase the utility is requesting.
- The share proposed for residential customers.
- The hearing and public comment dates.
What homeowners can do with that information
Once you know which charge is rising, the choices come into focus. Where your state allows it, you can shop the supply portion of your bill. Delivery charges cannot be shopped. The remaining option is to generate part of your own power.
Daylight provides solar and battery backup with zero upfront cost, and the battery comes standard with every installation. Daylight’s rate is fixed for the length of the agreement, with no annual escalator, so the electricity your system produces is not subject to rate cases. You would still buy grid electricity, and pay your utility’s delivery charges, for whatever the system does not cover. Whether a Daylight rate is lower than your utility’s depends on your utility’s rate and your home, and a quote will show you the numbers.
Brand Director at Daylight. Sunnyside is Daylight’s guide to energy, the grid, and the weather that moves your bill.