Rhode Island (RI) electricity and natural gas rates
Electricity
28.29¢
per kWh
Natural gas
$1.67
per therm
Gas and electricity in the same unit
A therm is 29.3 kilowatt hours of energy, so Rhode Island's gas works out at 5.70¢ per kWh against 28.29¢ for electricity.
That compares the energy you buy, not the heat you get. A furnace throws away a fifth of every therm up the flue, while a heat pump delivers two to three times the heat in a kilowatt hour — so the cheaper unit here is not automatically the cheaper way to heat a house.
Residential sector, US Energy Information Administration, 2026-07. Updated monthly.
How Rhode Island compares
At 28.29¢ per kWh, Rhode Island is above the national average of 19.26¢, making it the 45th cheapest of the 51 states we track.
What a typical Rhode Island household uses
Electricity a month
560 kWh
Bill a month
$164
Households in Rhode Island use 35% less electricity than the national average and pay 9% more than average. That is a price problem rather than a consumption one — at 28.29¢ a kilowatt hour, even a modest amount of electricity adds up. The climate is fairly balanced — 5,600 heating degree days against 700 cooling ones — so neither season dominates the bill.
More on this: the average electric bill in Rhode Island, including how far it swings between seasons.
Averaged over twelve months across 471,815 residential accounts in Rhode Island. Source: EIA.
What this means for heating
Rhode Island sees around 120 freezing nights a year. Whether a heat pump beats a furnace here depends on the gap between those two prices above — not on the equipment.
Run the numbers for your ZIPOther states
More for Rhode Island
Everything in Rhode Island
All five figures at once
Average electric bill in Rhode Island
What households pay
Cost to run AC in Rhode Island
Per hour and per year
Cost to heat a home in Rhode Island
Gas vs heat pump
Heat pump cost in Rhode Island
To install, and vs a furnace
Furnace replacement cost in Rhode Island
What a new one costs
Solar payback in Rhode Island
Whether panels pay off