April 13th's Consumer Price Index report showed that consumer prices overall averaged a 2.6 percent increase during the twelve months ending in March. And the report also showed that electricity prices — residential electric rates — averaged a virtually identical 2.5 percent increase during that same period. Economists would say that the real inflation-adjusted increase is thus approximately zero.
This continues the trend of recent years in which residential rates have risen at, or more usually below, general inflation. For instance, from March 2015 to March 2021, electricity increased at a compound annual growth rate of 0.8 percent. And over those six years, prices overall increased at a CAGR of 1.9 percent.