Residential Rates

City Light rates are more affordable compared to many cities in the country because we're a public, not-for-profit utility and we primarily rely on low-cost, renewable, carbon-free hydroelectricity. We focus on providing stable, predictable rates that allow us to deliver sustainable, reliable, and affordable service.

Your bill charges include:

  1. Base Service Charge: This is a charge you are billed regardless of your energy usage to cover costs associated with billing and customer service operations.
  2. Energy Charge: The portion of your bill based on the energy or kilowatt‐hours (kWh) consumed during the billing period.
    • On the Flat Rate, all kWh are charged the same rate. This is a change from 2024 rates where your rate increased after a certain amount of energy use.
    • On the Time of Use Rate (coming fall 2025), prices vary throughout the day based on when you use electricity.

Helpful Definitions

  • Watt: a measurement of the rate of electricity use, the most common unit of measurement is 1,000 watts, or 1 kilowatt (kW)
  • Kilowatt‐hour (kWh): a measure of the flow of electricity over an hour – 10, 100‐watt lights on for 1 hour = 1 kWh

Current Residential Rates

Flat Rate Pricing

Rate Type Seattle Burien,
SeaTac,
Shoreline,
Uninc. King County
Lake Forest Park Normandy Park Tukwila Renton
Base service charge per day $0.3077 $0.3323 $0.3324 $0.3273 $0.3294 $0.3077
Energy per kWh $0.1375 $0.1485 $0.1486 $0.1463 $0.1472 $0.1375

Time of Use Rate Pricing (Coming fall 2025)

Time of Use Rate Seattle Burien,
SeaTac,
Shoreline,
Uninc. King County
Lake Forest Park Normandy Park Tukwila Renton
Base service charge per day $0.3077 $0.3323 $0.3324 $0.3273 $0.3294 $0.3077
Peak Energy Charge per kWh $0.1656 $0.1788 $0.1789 $0.1762 $0.1773 $0.1656
Mid-Peak Energy Charge per kWh $0.1449 $0.1565 $0.1565 $0.1541 $0.1551 $0.1449
Off-Peak Energy Charge per kWh $0.0828 $0.0894 $0.0895 $0.0881 $0.0886 $0.0828

We are using a three-tiered peak system: peak, mid-peak, and off-peak. The price you pay for electricity will depend on when you use it.

When are the Time of Use time periods? City Light is using a three-tiered peak system: peak, mid-peak, and off-peak. The price you pay for electricity will depend on when you use it. Here are our TOU hours: Peak hours are when electricity is most expensive. This will be from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., Monday through Saturday, except on City-observed holidays. Mid-peak hours will be from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. and from 9 p.m. to midnight, Monday through Saturday. On Sundays and city-observed holidays, mid-peak pricing applies all day from 6 a.m. to midnight (with no peak hours). Off-peak hours are when electricity cost is lowest. This will be from midnight to 6 a.m. every day.

  • Peak hours are when electricity is most expensive. This will be from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., Monday through Saturday, except on City-observed holidays.
  • Mid-peak hours will be from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. and from 9 p.m. to midnight, Monday through Saturday. On Sundays and city-observed holidays, mid-peak pricing applies all day from 6 a.m. to midnight (with no peak hours).
  • Off-peak hours are when electricity cost is lowest. This will be from midnight to 6 a.m. every day.

Residential Undergrounding Rates

Burien and Shoreline elected to underground distribution lines on some of their arterial streets. Instead of the jurisdiction paying for the work upfront, the undergrounding cost is recovered from all customers in that jurisdiction via a kWh undergrounding charge according to the table below:

Burien Undergrounding Rates
First Ave South 1 per kWh $0.0037
First Ave South 2 per kWh $0.0013

Shoreline Undergrounding Rates
North City per kWh $0.0007
Aurora 1 per kWh $0.0017
Aurora 2 per kWh $0.0018
Aurora 3A per kWh $0.0005
Aurora 3B per kWh $0.0022

What Your Rate Covers

We provide you electricity, but the rate you pay also covers:

  • Electricity production from City Light-owned dams
  • Efforts to keep supply and demand in balance (because electricity is difficult to store)
  • Delivery of energy to your home
  • Customer services like billing, call-center support, and outage management
  • Community benefits such as environmental programs and the low-income Utility Discount Program (UDP) that provides a 60% discount to help our neighbors who need a little extra help

The average rate you pay is about 14 cents per kWh and this is where it goes:

Pie chart showing a breakdown of where customer rates go

City Light

Dawn Lindell, General Manager and CEO
Address: 700 5th Ave, Seattle, WA, 98104
Mailing Address: PO Box 34023, Seattle, WA, 98124-4023
Phone: (206) 684-3000
SCL_ExternalComms@seattle.gov

Seattle City Light was created by the citizens of Seattle in 1902 to provide affordable, reliable, and environmentally responsible electric power to the City of Seattle and neighboring suburbs.