Electric companies in the Southeast keep significantly more of their customers’ money as profit compared to those operating in competitive markets, according to the authors of the newly released report. Between 2021 and 2024, these Southeastern firms retained nearly 16 percent of their revenue as profit, which significantly exceeds the earnings of utilities in regions where power generation is sold competitively.
The report notes that “[u]tilities in the Southeast that operate outside of organized wholesale electricity markets reported the highest average profit shares” and “retained nearly 16 percent of revenue as profit” during the four-year period ending in 2024. This finding “stands in contrast to lower average margins for utilities in markets such as PJM (11.8 percent) and regions in New York and New England.”
In many parts of the country, the utility that delivers power to a home only owns the wires and must buy the actual electricity from a competitive market, which splits the potential earnings among multiple companies. In the Southeast, however, a single business typically owns everything from the power plants to the delivery lines, allowing it to capture the entire profit margin for itself and take a larger slice of the customer’s monthly payment.
The Energy & Policy Institute released its report “Paying for Their Profits: How Ratepayers Foot the Bill for Soaring Utility Profits” in March 2026. Authored by Daniel Tait, Sue Sturgis, and Shelby Green, the analysis tracks financial data from over 100 investor-owned utilities to reveal the significant role corporate returns play in driving up household electricity costs.
