Checking up on national electricity prices: Minnesota continues to have the highest rates in its local region, and prices above the national median, according to the latest data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).
January’s Electric Power Monthly (with data for November 2025) shows that the average residential electricity price in Minnesota sits at 15.67 cents per KWh, up 4.4 percent from a year ago. That price sits higher than any other state within the West Central region (IA-KS-MO-NE-ND-SD) and Minnesota’s prices are increasing at an annual rate faster than the region’s (4.4 percent (MN) to 4.0 percent (Region)). Minnesota (and the region) sits below the national residential average price of 17.8 cents/kWh.
More importantly, Minnesota’s overall electricity prices (across all customer classifications) are the region’s highest and increasing at a faster annual rate than the region, overall (5.8 percent to 4.7 percent).
Even more importantly, Minnesota’s overall average electricity prices sit above those in 28 other states. Although Minnesota’s average price sits below the national average price, it sits above the national median, the more important measure.
National averages are skewed by a few very-high-priced outliers, such as Hawaii, California, and Massachusetts. The median is a better measure of where Minnesota ranks among states.
You would have expected that Minnesota’s massive investment in renewable energy would have improved its national standing on electricity prices, but the opposite has occurred.
And why that’s important is data centers. Like it or not, the biggest driver of economic growth in America today is artificial intelligence (A.I.). Like it or not, the physical manifestation of AI is data centers.
The biggest states in America for hosting data centers are Virginia, Texas, and California. Electricity is the biggest cost for operating data centers. Minnesota has higher electricity rates than Virginia or Texas.
The consulting firm McKinsey expects $3 trillion (with a “t”) in data center investment in the next five years in the United States.
Like it or not, Minnesota isn’t in the game.
