Investor-owned utilities requested $23.1 billion in electric and gas rate increases in the first three quarters of 2026, including a record $4.5 billion filed in the third quarter, according to advocacy group PowerLines, Utility Dive reported. PowerLines founder Charles Hua tied the filings to an ongoing rise in utility costs, and energy affordability is now a key midterm issue with voters focused on rising costs amid the data-center buildout.
The largest Q3 filing came from FirstEnergy’s Jersey Central Power and Light: a $253 million base distribution increase plus recovery of $476 million in deferred storm costs spread over ten years, worth about 8.8 percent on the average residential bill, though the utility says offsets delay customer impacts to 2028. Southern utilities serving about 11 million customers requested $2.2 billion in Q3, taking the region to $9 billion in 2026; the Northeast, Midwest and West filed $900 million, $800 million and $600 million respectively. Separately, the North Carolina Clean Energy Technology Center found average residential electricity prices up about 7.3 percent from April 2025 to April 2026, and the National Energy Assistance Directors Association projects electric-heated households will pay 9 percent more this winter. Utility Dive notes Edison Electric Institute members are projected to spend more than $1.1 trillion in capex from 2025 to 2029, while a PowerLines analysis put utility capex through 2030 at $1.4 trillion, up 21 percent. Single-sourced; the underlying PowerLines index was not opened directly.