Electricity is the new inflation. American power bills are up 43% since 2019, half again faster than prices overall.

Name: Prices overall (charted by MacroSnaps)
Creator: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, EIA, Berkeley Lab (2026)
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Prices overall129(Jul 26)Electricity143(Jul 26)Bills ahead by 15 pts

US consumer prices for electricity against prices overall, both set to 100 in December 2019, monthly to July 2026, seasonally adjusted. The shaded wedge is electricity's lead: opened by the 2022 gas crisis, widened fastest since 2024.

Why this is happening

Natural gas generates about 40% of US electricity and usually sets its price. When Russian gas left the world market in 2022, American bills jumped 14% in a year and never came down.
Now demand does the pushing. Data centres took about 4% of US electricity in 2023 and are heading for roughly 12% by 2030, far faster than the grid is being built; the cost of the race goes straight into bills.
It lands hardest where the boom lives: power prices are up 94% in Washington DC and 74% in Maryland in five years, and the 13-state grid auction around them has cleared at records three years running.

The take

Headline inflation is back near 3%, yet nobody feels it: the one bill every household watches is rising half again as fast. This is also who pays for the AI boom. Data centres bid for power on the same grid as houses, so until new supply arrives, part of every hyperscaler's appetite lands on household bills. The fight to make them pay their own way has begun.

Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, EIA, Berkeley Lab (2026)

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  <img src="https://macrosnaps.app/charts/power-bill-inflation.png" alt="US consumer prices for electricity against prices overall, both set to 100 in December 2019, monthly to July 2026, seasonally adjusted. The shaded wedge is electricity's lead: opened by the 2022 gas crisis, widened fastest since 2024." width="640" style="max-width:100%;height:auto">
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  Chart: <a href="https://macrosnaps.app/c/power-bill-inflation">MacroSnaps</a>,
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MacroSnaps (2026). "Electricity is the new inflation. American power bills are up 43% since 2019, half again faster than prices overall." Edition No. 52, 1 September 2026. https://macrosnaps.app/c/power-bill-inflation

Permanent link: https://macrosnaps.app/c/power-bill-inflation

The underlying data

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