In 1960 it was 2.6c/kWh on average for residential nationwide. In 2005 dollars, the price actually has gone down until about 2005 / the Kenyan became president. But this data stops at 2011, so we should do it to the current year.
Using bls inflation calculator using CPI, the 2.6 cents = 28.749 cents in 2025. The power did get cheaper, but it's probably not cheaper than in the 1970s after we had more consumption by HVAC and were starting to do nuclear power.
1973 was the lowest nominal price, and also the lowest price in 2005 dollars (2.5 cents or 8.9 2005 cents). Those 2.5 cents are equivalent to 19.013 cents in 2025. That's cheaper than power in NYC and more than power in Miami, so it probably very much depends on location. (And the cost of electric power varies substantially from place to place, with multiples of difference, while gas/diesel/oil doesn't fluctuate to that level - this has an interesting anecdote about where electric cars are actually cost effective and where a datacenter should go. In 2016, in Seattle, the electric car was a massive win as power was dirt cheap ($0.05/kWh) and gas was high, over $4/gallon). But gasoline can change a lot more in price in a short period of time.
In 1960 it was 2.6c/kWh on average for residential nationwide. In 2005 dollars, the price actually has gone down until about 2005 / the Kenyan became president. But this data stops at 2011, so we should do it to the current year.
Using bls inflation calculator using CPI, the 2.6 cents = 28.749 cents in 2025. The power did get cheaper, but it's probably not cheaper than in the 1970s after we had more consumption by HVAC and were starting to do nuclear power.
1973 was the lowest nominal price, and also the lowest price in 2005 dollars (2.5 cents or 8.9 2005 cents). Those 2.5 cents are equivalent to 19.013 cents in 2025. That's cheaper than power in NYC and more than power in Miami, so it probably very much depends on location. (And the cost of electric power varies substantially from place to place, with multiples of difference, while gas/diesel/oil doesn't fluctuate to that level - this has an interesting anecdote about where electric cars are actually cost effective and where a datacenter should go. In 2016, in Seattle, the electric car was a massive win as power was dirt cheap ($0.05/kWh) and gas was high, over $4/gallon). But gasoline can change a lot more in price in a short period of time.
https://www.eia.gov/totalenergy/data/annual/txt/ptb0810.html
https://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl?cost1=26&year1=196001&year2=202508
Well that's a great find. Thanks for clarifying that, even though you successfully refuted my thesis. 😁