West Virginia residential electricity rates rose nearly 34% between 2019 and 2024, according to U.S. Energy Information Administration data, making the state one of the fastest-rising residential power markets in the country. More than 266,000 households — 37% of the state — are now considered energy-burdened, spending more than 6% of their household income on electricity and other power costs. Some families are selling possessions, skipping medications and going without food to keep their lights on.
Coal dependence, an expanding data center footprint and a shrinking population have driven rates higher even as cheaper energy alternatives have grown more competitive nationally, according to reporting by Mountain State Spotlight distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press. State lawmakers are pursuing deeper reliance on coal, a direction the report says could push costs further out of reach for residents already at the financial edge.
Selling jewelry to pay the electric bill
Dwan Marcum lives in Genoa with her husband and eight children, ranging in age from seven to 21. Last fall, she chose not to enroll her youngest daughter in cheerleading.
“I was afraid to take that $75 and pay that fee for her to play, because that $75, that can go toward my electric bill,” Marcum said.
In December, Marcum sold rings, earrings and a bracelet, raising $450 toward a $610 electric bill. The proceeds were not enough. Her family had already exhausted the utility’s one-time payment plan option and had used a buy-now-pay-later service to cover earlier bills. Before that, she sold family collectibles to pay a prior bill. She has deferred needed car repairs to preserve cash for future power costs.
Her next bill is forecast to exceed $700, which would leave the family about $100 from one of her husband’s paychecks.
“When your electric bill is higher than your house payment, there’s something wrong,” Marcum said. “We shouldn’t have to be having payment assistance for something that is a necessity.”
Marcum said her in-laws held a yard sale to cover their own electric bill. Her mother-in-law went without blood pressure medication for two weeks so that money could go toward power costs instead.
New appliances, same bills
Debbie Allen, 62, is a widow in Wayne County who lives alone most of the year while her daughter attends college. She was returning from surgery to have a defibrillator implanted when she received her December power bill: $980, nearly five times her November bill and roughly double her typical winter range of $400 to $500.
Over the prior two years, Allen had replaced her furnace, breaker box, refrigerator, stove, washer and dryer with energy-efficient models in an effort to control costs she covers with Social Security payments.
“It’s supposed to be energy saving,” Allen said. “That doesn’t sound like I saved any energy.”
After multiple calls to the utility, Allen said she was told the spike was caused by power surges — an explanation that left her without a remedy. Facing a bill she could not account for, she skipped Christmas gifts for her brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews.
“If every month it’s like that, how do you keep paying that?” she said.
No heat, no hot water, no groceries
Brandon Cannon, 23, shares a townhouse in Martinsburg with three roommates. His household’s January power bill came in at $745 — more than double what the group typically pays. Cannon covers half the total, paying for himself and his girlfriend.
He acknowledged that his two boa constrictors, which require heating and lighting, contribute to his power costs. But the January bill was far beyond anything his household had seen.
To cope, Cannon wrapped windows with cling wrap to retain heat, shut off central heating and used his oven as a heat source. He used ceramic candles to warm smaller rooms. He and his roommates went without hot water — showering, washing dishes and doing laundry in cold water only — and dried clothes over the oven or the candles.
To cover his share of the bill, Cannon drew from his grocery budget.
“I didn’t have the money for it,” he said. “I had to forgo getting proper groceries. Instead, eating ramen for a while, actually.”
His roommates fell behind on car maintenance and dropped gym memberships. Cannon called the months-long stretch “awful.”
A structural mismatch, and a policy choice
The Statewide Housing Needs Assessment, released by the state Housing Development Fund, found that of the roughly 266,000 energy-burdened households in West Virginia, 20% are low-income and carry among the highest energy costs in the state.
Mountain State Spotlight identified three overlapping drivers of the rate increases: the state’s continued reliance on coal as cheaper alternatives have emerged, the growth of data centers in the region, which has added load to the grid, and a declining population that spreads fixed infrastructure costs across fewer ratepayers.
State lawmakers are seeking to reinforce the state’s coal industry. The Mountain State Spotlight report said that trajectory could make the situation worse for residential customers.
This article is based on reporting by Sarah Elbeshbishi of Mountain State Spotlight, distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.