Commercial electricity budget planner

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kWh, last 12 monthsAdd up the kWh on 12 bills

Total cost, last 12 months ($)Supply and delivery, every charge

Expected change in use (%)An expansion, new equipment, longer hours

At 15.00¢ per kWh on 240,000 kWh, the last 12 months cost $36,000. Next year’s spend runs from $36,000 to $42,230 across the cases below; budgeting the high end covers a bad year.

Next year’s electricity spend under each case

Case	Price per kWh	Year	Per month	Against last 12 months	Basis
Price held where it is	15.00¢	$36,000	$3,000	no change	Your current average price per kWh, unchanged.
EIA forecast for the East North Central census division	15.35¢	$36,847	$3,071	+2.4%	EIA’s November 2026 Short-Term Energy Outlook puts the average commercial price in the East North Central census division up 2.4% from 2026 to 2027.
A bad year	17.60¢	$42,230	$3,519	+17.3%	The largest one-year rise in Illinois’s average commercial price since 2010: 17.3%, from 2021 to 2022 (EIA).

Where each case comes from

• Price held. Your own average price per kWh over the last 12 months, total cost divided by total kWh, kept for another year.
• EIA forecast. The change EIA’s Short-Term Energy Outlook (November 2026) forecasts in the average commercial price of your census division from 2026 to 2027, applied to your price. EIA does not forecast single states. The forecast page has every region.
• A bad year. The largest one-year rise in your state’s average commercial price since 2010, from EIA’s Form EIA-861 state history, applied once. It is something that has happened, used as a stress test, not a prediction.

All three cases move your current price by a percentage, so they keep whatever your bills include: demand charges, riders, taxes and a supply contract. A fixed-price contract makes part of the bill certain for its term; delivery charges still change when the utility’s rates are reset.

Making the budget more accurate

• Use 12 consecutive months so every season is in it; a summer peak or a winter heating load moves the average.
• If a supply contract renews during the year, the renewal price matters more than any average. The renewal window checker says when to act.
• For where the money goes, the interval data analyzer reads your smart-meter file and shows when your peak happens.

Common questions

How much should a business budget for electricity next year?

Start from your own last 12 months, not an average, and plan a range. EIA’s November 2026 outlook has the U.S. average commercial price up 1.8% from 2026 to 2027; in half the states the worst single year since 2010 was a rise of 11% or more, so a budget that covers that case is rarely caught out.

Why use the worst year since 2010 as a case?

Because it happened. It is the largest one-year rise in the state’s average commercial price in EIA’s records since 2010; in 26 of 51 markets it was 2021 to 2022. It is a plausible bad year, not a forecast.

Does this include demand charges and riders?

It starts from your total cost, so whatever your bills included is in it. What it cannot see is a change to your rate schedule or a new rider; those are set by the utility and the regulator, and a bill review is the way to find them.