South Carolina electricity and natural gas rates
Electricity
16.18¢
per kWh
Natural gas
$2.64
per therm
Residential sector, US Energy Information Administration, 2026-05. Updated monthly.
How South Carolina compares
At 16.18¢ per kWh, South Carolina is below the national average of 19.41¢, making it the 25th cheapest of the 51 states we track.
What a typical South Carolina household uses
Electricity a month
1,062 kWh
Bill a month
$164
Households in South Carolina use 23% more electricity than the national average and pay 10% more than average. Cheap power absorbs most of that: the meter turns faster here, but at 16.18¢ each unit costs less than it does nationally. Cooling explains most of it: South Carolina runs about 2,100 cooling degree days a year against 2,400 heating ones, so summer, not winter, sets the bill.
Averaged over twelve months across 2,659,204 residential accounts in South Carolina. Source: EIA.
What this means for heating
South Carolina sees around 45 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.
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