US electric, gas utility rate requests spike to $4.5B in Q3: PowerLines — SkimNews
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- PowerLines reported investor-owned utilities sought a record $4.5 billion in Q3 2026 rate increases, bringing year-to-date requests to $23.1 billion across electric and gas service.
- FirstEnergy's Jersey Central Power & Light filed the largest single request — a $253 million base distribution increase plus $476 million in deferred storm costs recovered over 10 years, translating to an 8.8% residential bill increase that won't hit customers until 2028.
- Average residential electricity prices rose approximately 7.3% from April 2025 to April 2026, according to the North Carolina Clean Energy Technology Center, while energy affordability has become a key midterm issue.
- Winter heating costs are projected to climb 9% for electric-heat households, 5.8% for natural gas, 8.7% for propane, and 31.3% for heating oil, per the National Energy Assistance Directors Association.
- Utility capital expenditure through 2030 has risen 21% to $1.4 trillion per a prior PowerLines analysis — up from the Edison Electric Institute's $1.1 trillion projection for 2025–2029 — as utilities race to meet surging demand from data centers and electrification.
- Other major Q3 filers include Oklahoma Gas & Electric, Indiana-Michigan Power Co., Dominion Energy Virginia, and CenterPoint Energy in Texas.
- Regional breakdown: Southern utilities serving 11 million customers sought $2.2 billion in Q3, pushing the region's 2026 total to $9 billion; the Northeast ($900M for 5.6M customers), Midwest ($800M for 7.9M), and West ($600M for 20.8M) trailed.
Why it matters: With the South alone requesting $9 billion in 2026 rate hikes and residential electricity up 7.3% year-over-year, roughly 11 million Southern households are queued for direct bill increases as the issue collides with midterm messaging. JCP&L's $476 million storm-cost rider spread over 10 years signals utilities are increasingly leaning on extended recovery mechanisms to mask near-term bill shock — a structural workaround that keeps regulatory pipelines moving while shifting costs down the road.
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