Electricity has outpaced inflation in New England. That makes every kilowatt-hour a building stops wasting worth more each year.
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It has also become one of the hardest lines in an operating budget to predict. Prices swing with the weather and the price of natural gas, and the bill itself is built in a way that is easy to underestimate. The good news is in the math: when energy costs more, the savings from using less are worth more, too.
A cost that outran inflation
Between 2019 and 2025, the average price New England businesses and institutions paid for electricity rose about 38%, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Over the same years, overall consumer prices rose about 26%. Electricity did not just keep up with inflation here. It ran ahead of it.
The climb has not been a straight line. Prices have dipped in some years and jumped in others, and winter is the pressure point, because New England leans on natural gas to make electricity.
How the bill works, in plain English
A commercial bill has two main parts: supply, the electricity itself, and delivery, the cost of moving it across the grid and the local wires to your building. Many schools, town buildings and businesses also pay a demand charge, the part people most often misread.
Kilowatt-hours are how much you use, like gallons of water over a month. Kilowatts are how big your load is at one time, like the size of the pipe you need at your busiest moment. The utility charges for that pipe size based on your single busiest 15 or 30 minutes, all month long.
An example: one busy morning
Take an elementary school on a cold January morning. Within the same short stretch, the kitchen starts up, the ventilation comes on and every classroom light goes to full. That one busy stretch can set the size of the pipe the school pays for all month, even if the rest of the month is quiet.
If the lights are part of that rush, lower-wattage fixtures and dimming shrink the pipe as well as the gallons. If the peak comes from other equipment, the savings show up mostly in the gallons. The school’s own utility data shows when its peaks happen.
Free Energy Assessment
See your own numbers, not the averages.
We walk your buildings with you and put real numbers in writing for each one: what it costs to light today, what it could cost, and how the savings can pay for the work. No cost, no obligation.
Why a proposal priced at today’s rate falls short
Most lighting proposals price every future year of savings at today’s electricity rate. If rates keep rising, that undercounts what the project is worth, because every kilowatt-hour you avoid becomes more valuable each year it costs more.
A forecast is not a promise, so the honest answer is not to bet on one. Ask to see three versions of the savings: today’s rate held flat, a rising case and a lower case. If a project still makes sense in the lower case, the decision does not rest on anyone’s prediction.
Where lighting fits
Lighting is one of the few parts of the bill a building can change on its own schedule. The savings come from efficiency and control together: fixtures that give the same light on less power, and controls that run them only when, where and as bright as needed. Every building is different, and the assessment measures yours.
Already have LED? That was the right first step, and those savings are real and lasting. Controlled lighting builds on it. We explain why in Beyond LED: Why Smart Lighting Is the Next Step.
Projects can also be structured so the savings fund the payments, and if rates rise, those savings are worth more each year.
What this means for your budget
No one can set the price of electricity. A budget can plan for the price as a range and control how much electricity the buildings need. Start with a Free Energy Assessment: we walk your buildings with you and put the numbers in writing for each one, at no cost. One team in Dover, New Hampshire engineers, builds, installs and services every system. One partner. We stay in.
Next in this series: Part 2 shows how to build an electricity budget that can take a punch.
Research Brief
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Every fact in this article with its source, the full research behind it, and answers to the questions readers ask.
Sources: U.S. Energy Information Administration; U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics; ISO New England. Full citations are in the Research Brief.