El Pasoans have been stunned when they opened their electric bills in recent weeks, with many taking to social media to express outrage.
“Is it just me or did anybody else in the neighborhood get an extremely high bill for June? I know I used electricity a little more than last month but not $200 more than last month. El Paso Electric, what the heck is going on?” an Upper Valley resident wrote on NextDoor.
A number of factors – most notably a state-approved increase in electric rates and summer heat – combined to create a spike in electric bills, especially when El Pasoans compared their bills from June usage with the prior month.
If weather patterns of the past five years hold, electric bills for the next two months of summer are likely to be as high as or higher than the most recent bill.
El Paso Electric has programs to help people struggling financially to pay their bills, but all residential customers with good payment history over the past 12 months are eligible for the company’s Budget Billing Plan, which creates a consistent monthly bill across a year, rather than the swings between high summer bills and low winter payments.
El Paso Matters asked El Paso Electric to explain the role of the various factors in the monthly bill for customers. The utility also offered guidance for those facing financial hardship because of summer electric bills.
“The short answer is that customers may be seeing the combined effect of hotter weather and higher usage, currently effective rates and the end of a temporary fuel-refund credit. The contribution of each factor will differ by customer,” El Paso Electric spokesperson Jacob Reyes said.
Here’s a quick breakdown of each of the main contributors to the higher bills. The impact on individual residential and commercial customers will vary by usage levels, but this explanation will use energy consumption for a typical El Paso home that used 822 kilowatt-hours of electricity in June. El Paso Electric provided comparisons for this June to the same month in 2025, and to May 2026.
The rate increase
The Texas Public Utility Commission in February approved a rate increase for El Paso Electric, the first in five years. The increase was based on the utility’s more than $1 billion in capital investments in power generation and distribution systems for Texas customers since 2020, plus a profit margin on those investments of just over 9%.
(The Meta data center is not part of the El Paso Electric rate base. How much – if anything – El Paso Electric ratepayers will be charged for the investment in that facility will be decided in future rate cases.)
The utility estimated that the new rates, which took effect in May, would increase the monthly bill on an average home by just over $13 a month across the year, or about 13%. Electric bills in El Paso are highest in late spring through early fall because of the need to cool buildings in often-intense desert heat.
Under the rates in effect in 2025, the bill for a residential customer using 822 kilowatt-hours of electricity in June would be $120.84; under the new rates in 2026, the bill would be $145.84, an increase of 21% with no change in usage, according to the utility’s estimates.
More energy usage will result in higher bills.
“The dollar amount increases as usage rises because a larger portion of the bill is based on the amount of electricity consumed,” El Paso Electric’s Reyes said.
These are estimates based on a billing cycle of June 1-30, and assume the same amount of power usage each year. El Paso’s average temperature in June 2026 was slightly warmer than the same month in 2025, so energy consumption was probably higher this year than last for most customers.
El Paso Electric customers pay on differing bill cycles, not all within a calendar month.
What happened with other bill components
Electric bills have a number of different charges, which can change over time. Some of El Paso Electric’s charges were lower this year compared with June 2025, though the overall bill was higher.
For a home with 822 kilowatt-hours of June electric usage, the customer charge increased from $9.25 to $13.71, and the energy charge increased from $85.01 to $111.11.
However, the combined Grid Connection Revenue Requirement and Distribution Cost Recovery Factor charges decreased from $8.10 to $2.87. Fuel remained $13.28 in both calculations, and total other charges decreased slightly from $5.20 to $4.87.
Why was my June bill so much higher than in May?
The El Paso Electric rate increase took effect in May, so that’s not what caused bills to jump so much between that month and June.
The May bill included a fuel-refund credit of approximately $18.02 for an average home, but that credit ended in June because the refund authorized by the PUC had been fully returned to customers.
But the main reason the most recent bill was higher than the prior month is because June was a lot hotter than May, which required more energy to keep houses cool.
El Paso’s average temperature in June was 86.2 degrees, which was 10 degrees hotter than the May average. June saw 17 days where the high temperature reached 100 or higher; there were no such days in May.
Utility companies and energy analysts use a measure called cooling degree days to quantify the energy demand to cool buildings. The number of cooling degree days is calculated by subtracting 65 from the average temperature for a day.
Most El Paso homes use electricity for cooling in the summer and natural gas for heating in the winter. So electric bills in the summer often can be multiple times higher than in the winter. Here’s the average of cooling degree days by month between 2020 and 2025.
June in El Paso produced 646 cooling degree days, compared with 343 in May – an 88% increase, according to the National Weather Service.
The number of degree days in July is on a trend similar to what El Paso saw in June, so July bills will likely be similar to last month’s if you’ve kept your thermostat consistent.
August in the past three years has produced an average of about 700 cooling degree days, so it’s possible that electric bills from that month could be higher than from June and July.
Where can I get help paying my electric bill
Higher electric bills put a squeeze on everyone, but that’s especially true for people with lower incomes.
El Paso’s median household income in Texas was just under $60,000 in 2024, which was 28% below the Texas median income and 36% below the national median. So El Paso is more vulnerable than most other communities to sudden price increases.
Reyes, the El Paso Electric spokesperson, said people who experience difficulty paying their electric bill should contact El Paso Electric directly for an individual account review. The customer service number is 915-543-5970.
“Depending on their circumstances, customers may qualify for a variety of assistance and payment-support options, including payment arrangements, payment extensions and budget billing,” he said. “Budget billing helps eligible customers manage seasonal fluctuations in energy costs by averaging electric bills throughout the year, providing more predictable monthly payments.”
El Paso Electric officials say only about 9% of residential customers are currently enrolled in the budget billing program.
The budget billing plan would result in a predictable monthly bill for a year. Switching to the plan would mean lower bills in the summer than customers would pay if they stayed on regular monthly billing, but higher bills in the winter.
Texas Gas Service offers a similar program, called Average Payment Plan. Natural gas bills are usually highest in the winter, when electric bills are usually at their lowest.
Some low-income El Paso Electric customers may also be eligible for the Texas Low Income Rider, which provides a monthly bill discount for qualifying households. Eligibility is generally based on participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or meeting established income guidelines.
The Bright Hearts Fund offers assistance to residential and commercial customers who have an active account and meet program eligibility requirements. Qualifying customers may receive support to reduce outstanding electric bill debt and maintain service.
Project BRAVO is another resource available to eligible El Paso County residents. The program may provide utility-payment assistance to qualifying households when funding is available and application periods are open. Customers interested in assistance are encouraged to contact Project BRAVO directly for current eligibility requirements and program availability.
Information on these assistance programs is available here: https://www.epelectric.com/residential/customer-programs
The post Why your El Paso Electric bill is higher this summer — and what you can do to avoid big spikes appeared first on El Paso Matters.
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