Burlington Electricity Costs Are Going Up — Here's Why

The numbers

Green Mountain Power customers in Vermont currently pay around $0.230/kWh on average. At the historical escalation rate of about 4.0% a year, that rate compounds quickly if it holds:

Projection based on Vermont's historical rate escalation of 4.0%/yr, compounded annually. Not a guarantee — actual future rates depend on regulatory decisions.

That's a 119% increase over 20 years if the trend continues — meaning the same household usage that costs $230 today per 1,000 kWh would cost roughly $504 at that point.

What's actually driving the increase

Vermont has been hit by an unusually high number of severe flooding and wind events in recent years, and Green Mountain Power has sought rate increases specifically to rebuild and harden storm-damaged infrastructure. Vermont already runs one of the cleanest grids in the country, but repair costs still land on customer bills.

How residents are fighting back

You can't vote down a rate case yourself, but you can reduce how much of your bill is exposed to it. Vermont's S.202 now allows a permit-free, no-utility-approval plug-in solar system up to 1200W — already in effect. Most plug-in systems this size don't qualify for net metering, so the strategy that actually works is maximizing self-consumption — using the power as you generate it, rather than exporting it back to the grid at a rate that keeps rising anyway.

Bottom line

Burlington rates are going up, and the drivers behind it — severe-storm damage and grid rebuilding costs — aren't going away soon. Every kWh you generate yourself is a kWh permanently insulated from the next rate case.