CenterPoint customers paid more for electricity than anyone in Indiana. Here's how much
EVANSVILLE – For the 12th year in a row, Evansville residents are paying the highest electric bills in the state.
That’s according to the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission’s latest residential bill survey, which tracks the July 1 billing period every year for each utility in Indiana.
The 2022 survey found that CenterPoint residential customers using 1,000 kilowatt hours in a month paid $168.47 on average. That’s only $7 a month more than the closest competitor – Duke Energy – but almost twice as much as the cheapest utility listed – Tipton Municipal Electric, whose customers shelled out $89.86 on average.
CenterPoint’s monthly bill for 1,000 kilowatt hours was about $40 more than the average across Indiana, the survey found.
That’s nothing new for CenterPoint – or, before it, Vectren.
Its electric rates briefly dipped to second-most-expensive in the state in 2010, when the Marshall County REMC’s price per 1,000 kilowatt hours outpaced Vectren’s by 45 cents ($133.10 to $132.65), but Evansville customers have consistently paid the highest bills since then.
Other utilities, though, are catching up.
In the 2013 survey, no other provider was within $35 of Evansville-area residents’ monthly bills. But the 2022 data showed Duke Energy taking a huge leap to get close to CenterPoint.
More:CenterPoint bills have gone up in Evansville-area over last 5 years. Here's how much.
The utility, which serves giant swaths of Southern and Central Indiana, saw an almost 25 percent jump in average monthly bills between 2021 and ’22. By comparison, CenterPoint customers saw about a 3 percent hike.
Thanks to natural gas heaters, electricity usage usually drops for most households as the weather gets colder. In previous years, that meant cheaper bills for CenterPoint customers. But not anymore.
Many Evansville households saw their heating bills almost double last winter thanks to rising natural gas prices and a 271 percent increase in CenterPoint’s “distribution fees.”
The company has already warned bills could rise even farther this year. In October, CenterPoint told customers to expect at least a 3.5 percent increase.
This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: CenterPoint customers paid more for electricity than anyone in Indiana
