What has happened to Oklahoma electricity rates?
I kept getting asked, so I pulled the federal filings and worked it out. Every electric utility reports its residential revenue and how many kilowatt hours it sold. Divide one by the other and you get what people actually paid. Here is the last ten years for OG&E and for the co-ops around me.
It depends on who sends your bill
OG&E residential power went up 18.2 percent over ten years. The co-ops did not follow it. Cimarron Electric and CKenergy both sit slightly below where they were in 2015, and Oklahoma Electric Co-op moved 1.2 percent in a decade. If somebody tells you Oklahoma power always goes up, that is true for some of us and not for others.
The one thing everybody shares is 2022. Look at the chart: every single utility peaks that year, then drops in 2023. That is natural gas, not a rate case. Fuel cost runs straight through to your bill.
| Utility | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 10-year change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OG&E (investor owned) | 9.97 | 10.43 | 10.12 | 9.35 | 9.24 | 9.26 | 10.77 | 12.64 | 10.81 | 11.78 | +18.2% |
| Cimarron Electric Coop | 11.97 | 11.84 | 11.62 | 10.95 | 10.96 | 11.66 | 12.24 | 13.17 | 12.20 | 11.87 | -0.8% |
| CKenergy Electric Cooperative | – | 12.96 | 13.06 | 12.55 | 12.85 | 13.18 | 13.91 | 14.83 | 13.14 | 12.81 | -1.1% |
| Canadian Valley Elec Coop | 10.32 | 10.19 | 10.38 | 9.90 | 9.95 | 10.20 | 11.06 | 12.18 | 11.71 | 11.90 | +15.3% |
| Central Rural Electric Coop | 9.32 | 9.55 | 9.62 | 9.97 | 9.56 | 10.30 | 10.70 | 9.92 | 10.68 | 11.56 | +24.0% |
| Oklahoma Electric Coop | 12.11 | 11.20 | 11.55 | 11.18 | 11.25 | 11.53 | 11.99 | 13.04 | 12.20 | 12.25 | +1.2% |
| Alfalfa Electric Coop | 9.38 | 9.52 | 9.72 | 9.79 | 9.68 | 9.63 | 10.32 | 11.61 | 10.37 | 10.20 | +8.8% |
| Northwestern Electric Coop | 13.32 | 13.38 | 14.12 | 13.64 | 13.84 | 13.81 | 14.78 | 16.53 | 15.19 | 15.29 | +14.8% |
| Kay Electric Coop | 12.16 | 12.38 | 12.73 | 12.07 | 12.51 | 12.54 | 12.90 | 13.74 | 13.04 | 14.13 | +16.2% |
Three increases and one decrease since 2015
OG&E is investor owned, so it has to ask the Oklahoma Corporation Commission before it changes base rates. That makes its history public. Here is every base rate case I could source since 2015. Where I could not verify a number, I say so instead of filling it in.
| Effective | Cause | Asked for | Approved | Residential, per month | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 1 2017 | PUD 201500273 | $92.5M | not verified | not verified | source |
| July 1 2018 | PUD 201700496 | federal tax reform case | minus $64M | about minus $4.40 | source |
| 2022 | PUD 202100164 | $163.5M | $30M | about plus $2.07 | source |
| July 1 2024 | PUD 2023-000087 | $332.54M | $126.66M | about plus $9.58 | source |
Two things moved bills without a rate case: fuel cost adjustments, which pass gas prices through every month, and the bonds from the February 2021 winter storm, roughly $1.4 billion across OG&E and PSO together, still being argued at the Oklahoma Supreme Court. I found no Oklahoma base rate case for 2015, 2016, 2019, 2020, 2023, 2025 or 2026.
The co-ops work differently
Cimarron, CKenergy, Canadian Valley, Central Rural, Alfalfa, Northwestern, Oklahoma Electric and Kay are member owned. Their own boards set rates, elected by the members, so there is no Corporation Commission docket to read. Their changes show up in the price data above and in their own rate and power cost adjustment notices. I did not put a rate change count on the co-ops, because I cannot source one the way I can for OG&E.
Where the numbers came from
Source. EIA Form 861, Sales to Ultimate Customers, the annual filing every electric utility in the country makes to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. I used the published files for 2015 through 2024, downloaded from eia.gov.
The math. For each year I took the utility’s Oklahoma row and divided residential Revenues (thousand dollars) by residential Sales (megawatt hours), times 100. That gives cents per kilowatt hour, which is what a residential customer actually paid on average, including fuel adjustments and riders, not just the base rate.
What to watch out for:
- OG&E also serves part of Arkansas. I used the Oklahoma rows only, because the filing separates them.
- This is an average across all residential customers of that utility. Your own bill depends on how much you use and when you use it.
- Fuel cost adjustments and storm bonds ride outside base rates. That is why 2022 spikes for everyone with no rate case behind it.
- CKenergy has no 2015 row in the filing, so its ten year comparison starts at 2016.
- The 2019 file puts an extra column in the middle. Read the column headers rather than counting positions, or 2019 comes out wrong.
- 2025 is not published yet. The 2024 file was the newest available when I built this on September 22 2026.
- The 2014 file is in an old spreadsheet format I did not open, so the series starts at 2015.
Check me. Download the same file, filter to your utility, and do the division yourself. That is the whole point of public data.
Straight answers
What has happened to Oklahoma electricity rates over the last 10 years?
It depends on who sends your bill. OG&E residential electricity went from 9.97 cents per kilowatt hour in 2015 to 11.78 cents in 2024, up 18.2 percent. The co-ops around Kingfisher moved very differently: Cimarron Electric went from 11.97 cents to 11.87, and CKenergy went from 12.96 to 12.81. Both are slightly lower than they were a decade ago.
How many rate increases has OG&E had in the past 10 years?
I found three approved base rate increases and one decrease. The increases took effect in May 2017, in 2022 (a $30 million settlement, about $2.07 a month) and on July 1 2024 (a $126.66 million settlement, about $9.58 a month). The decrease was July 2018, when federal tax reform cut rates by $64 million, about $4.40 a month. Base rate cases are not the whole story: fuel cost adjustments and the 2021 winter storm bonds move bills without a rate case.
Why did everybody’s rate jump in 2022 and then fall in 2023?
That is fuel, not base rates. Natural gas prices spiked in 2022, and utilities pass fuel costs straight through. Every one of the nine utilities I charted peaked in 2022, then came back down in 2023 when gas prices fell. It shows up in the price per kilowatt hour even though no rate case happened.
Do the co-ops go through the Corporation Commission like OG&E?
No. Cimarron, CKenergy, Canadian Valley, Central Rural, Alfalfa, Northwestern, Oklahoma Electric and Kay are member owned cooperatives. Their own elected boards set rates. There is no Corporation Commission rate case to read, so their price changes show up in the federal data and in their own rate and power cost adjustment notices rather than in a public docket.
Which utility serves Kingfisher County?
Most of my Kingfisher County customers are on Cimarron Electric Cooperative, with CKenergy and OG&E covering other parts of the seven counties I work in every day. If you are not sure which one you are on, it is printed at the top of your bill.
Where did these numbers come from?
The federal government. Every electric utility files EIA Form 861 each year, reporting residential revenue and residential kilowatt hours sold. Divide one by the other and you get the average price a residential customer actually paid. I pulled the Oklahoma rows for 2015 through 2024 and did that division. The method and every caveat are written out on this page.
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