A utility-level analysis of residential electricity use: Governance, pricing, and incentive programs in the Southeastern U.S.

This study examines utility-level variation in annual residential electricity consumption across Georgia and North Carolina, focusing on utility governance, electricity pricing, service-territory characteristics, and utility-run incentive programs. We construct a hand-collected inventory of 699 residential energy programs across 193 electric utilities and merge it with utility-level data, such as electricity consumption, rate, energy burden, climate, demographics and housing conditions, and EV charging-station data. The analytic sample includes 105 utilities with complete consumption and covariate data. Our results show that each additional EV program is associated with approximately 310 kWh (2.5%) higher annual per-household use, even after controlling for public EV charging-station density. Cooperative utilities initially exhibit higher household consumption than municipal utilities, but this difference loses statistical significance after accounting for program offerings and demographic factors. A one-cent/kWh higher electricity rate is associated with a 227 kWh (1.8%) to 334 kWh (2.7%) reduction in annual per-household electricity consumption, which may reflect both efficiency-driven conservation and energy-limiting behaviors. Prevalence of energy burden is associated with more electricity use after controlling for income, suggesting structural inefficiency in high-burden utility territories. These findings indicate that utility incentive programs should be paired with managed charging, demand response, targeted efficiency investment, and time-of-use pricing.