Annual Revenue Collected
per Residential, Commercial & Industrial Customer

Analysis — Revenue per Customer as a Regulatory Metric

Revenue per customer is a direct measure of the utility's revenue relationship with each account type. Unlike rates ($/kWh), revenue per customer captures both the rate and the consumption — a utility can hold rates flat while increasing revenue per customer if consumption grows, or it can raise rates aggressively while revenue per customer stays flat if consumption falls. The two metrics together tell the complete story.

The national median residential revenue per customer rose 38% in nominal terms from $1,048 in 2008 to $1,447 in 2024 — from $87 to $121 per month. That 38% increase over 16 years compares to a CPI increase of roughly 50% over the same period, suggesting that in real terms the average regulated utility residential bill is modestly below its 2008 level. However this masks wide variation — PG&E's 82% nominal increase far exceeds inflation, while Dayton Power & Light's -21% decline is extraordinary.

Dayton Power & Light's declining revenue per customer reflects a combination of declining industrial load, rate freezes imposed by Ohio regulators, and the FirstEnergy corporate restructuring. It demonstrates that revenue per customer is not a one-way ratchet — regulatory intervention and economic conditions can and do reduce it.

In rate proceedings, revenue per customer trends are used to assess whether a requested rate increase is consistent with historical patterns or represents an unusual acceleration. A utility whose revenue per customer has grown 80% in 16 years requesting a further 15% increase faces a different evidentiary burden than one whose revenue per customer has been flat.