May 16
One-Third of Americans Report Difficulty Paying Electric Bills
Top consumer smart energy news hand-selected and brought to you by the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative.
Member News
According to a recent national survey conducted by the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative (SECC), approximately 31 percent of Americans reported difficulty paying their electricity bills over the past year, an increase from 25 percent reported in 2023. The survey, titled "Addressing Energy Affordability", gathered responses from a nationally representative sample of 2,072 U.S. consumers in early April 2025.
A recent nationwide survey found that 73 percent of Americans are concerned about rising utility bills. These increases in billing costs are driven by supply chain challenges, policy changes, expensive infrastructure upgrades and growing annual expenses associated with the extreme weather events and associated storm damage exacerbated by climate change.
The Tennessee Valley Authority recently announced that 98 schools across its Southeast region will reduce their power bills and have healthier air thanks to over $2.3 million in funding for energy and classroom upgrades. This funding is part of TVA’s nationally recognized School Uplift program – which has saved participating schools an average of 10 percent on their energy bills annually through behavioral changes alone.
A new collaboration between Puget Sound Energy (PSE) and school districts uses grant funding from the Washington Department of Commerce to turn school buses into mobile power stations for communities. PSE, which serves 1.2 million electric customers and 900,000 natural gas customers in Washington State, said the project is partially funded by a $612,000 grant from the state commerce department’s Clean Energy Community Grants program.
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Industry News
For years, Tesla has been the defining EV brand in not only the U.S. but the world. That’s changing. The company’s iron grip on the U.S. EV sector began to loosen back in 2023 as competition picked up. As of the first quarter of this year, amid CEO Elon Musk’s controversial political activities, its market share has dropped to a new low. There’s no single explanation for Tesla’s slide, which comes even as EV sales in the U.S. rise.
Annual U.S. electricity consumption is expected to increase in 2025 and 2026, surpassing an all-time high reached last year and driving an expansion in generating capacity – largely in the form of solar and battery storage, said the Energy Information Administration on Tuesday. Utility-scale solar significantly leads the pack, set to add around 135 GW between 2020 and 2026.
North American utilities should have adequate generation capacity to get through normal weather conditions this summer, but the potential for extreme weather is rising and the grid could come under stress in some areas as a result, officials from NERC said Wednesday. Four regions within the U.S. face elevated electric reliability risk this summer, meaning they have adequate operating reserves under normal peak conditions, but could experience outages should load peak beyond historical norms.
Maine’s new energy-efficiency plan is projected to lower electricity bills for the state’s residents – even those who don’t directly benefit from its rebate and incentive programs. The plan, set to go into effect in July, is heavily focused on getting electric heat pumps in as many homes as possible. It comes as other states debate rolling back efficiency programs funded by utility customers as a short-term fix to rising energy prices.
